The Republic of Iraq (Arabic: العراق (help·info); Kurdish: عيَراق) is a Middle Eastern country in southwestern Asia encompassing most of Mesopotamia as well as the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range and the eastern part of the Syrian Desert. It shares borders with Kuwait and Saudi Arabia to the south, Jordan to the west, Syria to the northwest, Turkey to the north, and Iran to the east. It has a very narrow section of coastline at Umm Qasr on the Persian Gulf. Iraq contains a mixt, ure of various Arabian, Kurdish, Turkmen, Persian, and Assyrian cultures, deeply influenced by Iranian and Ottoman rule and societies.
It also hosts three of the most important religious sites in Shi'a Islam — the Sacred Mosque of Imam Ali in Najaf and the mosques of Imam Hussein and Hadrat Abbas Shrine in Karbala. After the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, led by American and British military forces, which drove Saddam Hussein and his Ba'ath Party from power, a transitional government of Iraq was elected in January 2005. On October 15, 2005, Iraqi voters approved a new constitution in a referendum. Though it received a 79% "yes" vote, it was opposed by a large majority of Sunni Arab Iraqis. A majority of all Iraqis or any three provinces rejecting it by more than 2/3 vote would have meant a failure to pass.
On December 15, 2005, Iraqis voted for their first permanent National Assembly under the new constitution. The turnout was described by various media sources and official estimates as being around 70%. A large number of Sunni Arabs voted in the election. American offensives on such cities as Fallujah and Tal Afar, the continued lack of such basic services as electricity and clean water, and deep political division in the country, have continued to contribute to disenchantment and disorder in Iraq. Supporters of the Iraqi insurgency blame the occupying forces for the disorder, but others blame the insurgency itself. In the meantime, the country is still struggling to gain stability in various aspects.