RAMADI: In Iraq’s Anbar province, visitors can be hard-pressed to find a hotel room as tribal tradition makes housing guests a point of honor.
The western region along the Syrian border was long held by Daesh, and few outsiders managed to venture into its capital Ramadi until the extremists were pushed out in 2016.
But today, traders, investors, contractors and construction workers are rushing into the desert province, as business begins to resume after years of stagnation.
Karim Al-Basrawi, a car-parts salesman in Ramadi on business, was hoping to stay in a hotel during a recent trip.
“When I arrived, I was surprised that there were no hotels,” said the 35-year-old from the southern province of Basra.
After getting lost on the way to a meeting, he decided to knock on a door and ask the family if they knew the man he was looking for.
“They said yes and invited me in. After dinner and tea — and after I repeatedly asked about the person — they told me they didn’t know him, but would send someone to look for him and that I should spend the night at their place.”
Tribal traditions of hospitality transcend community affiliation. Karim, the visitor, is Shiite, but the majority of Anbar province is Sunni.
“Hospitality is a red line for us. We respect guests as we respect God,” said Sheikh Mohammad Khalef Al-Shaabani, leader of the powerful Shaabani tribe, who lives in Ramadi.
In Anbar, hotels are out of the question.
“We will never allow their construction. We’d sell everything we have to honor a guest,” said the 45-year-old, wearing a red and white checkered keffiyeh headscarf.
“When we build our homes, we first think of the diwaniya (reception hall), which must be big, even if it means we must sleep in one room,” he added.
Omar Al-Nimer, a barber, said many families host guests even if they do not know the person.
“If he has the wrong address, for example, he’ll stay with us for one night at least before we take him to the right person. He must eat and drink and relax at ours, otherwise people will talk about us.”
French anthropologist Dawood Hosham, who is of Iraqi origin, highlights the “tribal” nature of cities like Ramadi when explaining the importance placed on hospitality.
“Under these circumstances, it is inconceivable that a visitor should be looking for a hotel, where local traditions dictate the duty of hospitality. This is the case with other cities in the province as well,” explained Hosham, author of The Tribes and Power in the Land of Islam.
In the center of Ramadi lies an abandoned concrete structure, the only attempt in 2013 by a Turkish company to erect a hotel in Anbar.
But construction stopped with the Daesh group’s takeover of the large swathes of the country in 2014. According to residents, even the terrorists stayed away from the building.
Anbar provincial council member Athal Obeid Dhahi said there is an urgent need to create hotels for “weddings, parties or receptions,” but “it is useless because the tribes here do not accept.”
The tribal opposition, combined with the area’s delicate political and security situations, means “it is difficult to imagine any tourist movement in Anbar,” said Dhahi.
Radical fighters still maintain a presence in the province, particularly along the Syrian border.
It was in Anbar that a large section of the Sunni community revolted against the Shiite-led government in Baghdad and welcomed Daesh militants — who are also Sunnis — as protectors, as they had done with Al-Qaeda 10 years before.
Although they quickly grew disillusioned, it was already too late: the extremist group had taken over the province and imposed its ruthless law.
But for Sheikh Mohammad Al-Shaabani, the province’s suffering in the past 15 years does not negate the importance of preserving tradition.
“Generosity is courage, and hotels nullify that courage,” he said.
“We always tell our visitors: You are the boss of the house, and we are the guests.”
Hotel hunting: Mission impossible in tribal Iraq
Hotel hunting: Mission impossible in tribal Iraq
Sudan’s prime minister takes his peace plan to the UN, but US urges humanitarian truce now
- Sudan’s prime minister is proposing a wide-ranging peace initiative to end a nearly 1,000-day war with a rival paramilitary force
- It seems unlikely the RSF would support the proposal, which would essentially give government forces a victory and take away their military power
UNITED NATIONS: Sudan’s prime minister on Monday proposed a wide-ranging peace initiative to end a nearly 1,000-day war with a rival paramilitary force, but the United States urged both sides to accept the Trump administration’s call for an immediate humanitarian truce.
Kamil Idris, who heads Sudan’s transitional civilian government, told the Security Council his plan calls for a ceasefire monitored by the United Nations, African Union and Arab League, and the withdrawal of paramilitary forces from all areas they occupy, their placement in supervised camps and their disarmament.
Sudan plunged into chaos in April 2023 when a power struggle between the military and the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces exploded into open fighting, with widespread mass killings and rapes, and ethnically motivated violence. This has amounted to war crimes and crimes against humanity, according to the UN and international rights groups.
It seemed highly unlikely the RSF would support the prime minister’s proposal, which would essentially give government forces a victory and take away their military power.
In an indirect reference to the truce supported by the US and key mediators Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, known as the Quad, Idris stressed to the UN Security Council that the government’s proposal is “homemade — not imposed on us.”
In early November, the Rapid Support Forces agreed to a humanitarian truce. At that time, a Sudanese military official told The Associated Press the army welcomed the Quad’s proposal but would only agree to a truce when the RSF completely withdraws from civilian areas and gives up their weapons — key provisions in the plan Idris put forward on Monday.
Idris said unless the paramilitary forces were confined to camps, a truce had “no chance for success.” He challenged the 15 members of the Security Council to back his proposal.
“This initiative can mark the moment when Sudan steps back from the edge and the international community — You! You! — stood on the right side of history,” the Sudanese prime minister said. He said the council should “be remembered not as a witness to collapse, but as a partner in recovery.”
US deputy ambassador Jeffrey Bartos, who spoke to the council before Idris, said the Trump administration has offered a humanitarian truce as a way forward and “We urge both belligerents to accept this plan without preconditions immediately.”
Bartos said the Trump administration strongly condemns the horrific violence across Darfur and the Kordofan region — and the atrocities committed by both the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, who must be held accountable.
UAE Ambassador Mohamed Abushahab, a member of the Quad, said there is an immediate opportunity to implement the humanitarian truce and get aid to Sudanese civilians in desperate need.
“Lessons of history and present realities make it clear that unilateral efforts by either of the warring parties are not sustainable and will only prolong the war,” he warned.
Abushahab said a humanitarian truce must be followed by a permanent ceasefire “and a pathway toward civilian rule independent of the warring parties.”
UN Assistant Secretary-General for political affairs Khaled Khiari reflected escalating council concerns about the Sudan war, which has been fueled by the continuing supply of increasingly sophisticated weapons.
He criticized unnamed countries that refuse to stop supplying weapons, and both government and paramilitary forces for remaining unwilling to compromise or de-escalate.
“While they were able to stop fighting to preserve oil revenues, they have so far failed to do the same to protect their population,” Khiari said. “The backers of both sides must use their influence to help stop the slaughter, not to cause further devastation.”
The devastating war in Sudan has killed more than 40,000 people according to UN figures, but aid groups say the true number could be many times higher. The conflict has created the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, with over 14 million people displaced, disease outbreaks and famine spreading in parts of the country.
