The temperature in some Iraqi cities, usually around 45° C in the shade during the summer, has hit a dramatic new high this year. Several cities have recorded averages above 50° C in the shade for more than 30 days, with the temperature failing to drop below 30° C at night.

Parts of Iran and Kuwait are also affected, but to a lesser extent.

According to the Iraqi meteorological services, this rise in temperatures is not attributable to the global warming of the planet. It is a phenomenon particular to the region because of the war that has raged there for years. This disturbance could worsen, driving temperatures up to 70° C in the course of the next ten years.

As scientists will recall, a “meteorological war” had devastated the Indochinese peninsula during the Vietnam war leading, in 1976, to the signing of the “Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques” by the USA and the USSR.

It is not fortuitous that, in 2013, the US air force illegally dispersed chemicals over the Syrian-Iraqi border in order to sterilize large swathes of land. The idea was to deprive the Syrian and Iraqi peasants of their livelihood and get them to join Daesh in 2014, when it entered the scene (Wright Plan). Many areas are still unsuitable for agriculture, bringing about a change in the regional climate. A massive sandstorm from Israel to Iraq was recorded in September 2015, with the fallow land no longer holding the sand.