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Iraq

June 27, 2026

Baghdad 8:20 am

35°C

A worker at a market for fuel oil and automotive fuel on March 17, 2026, in Erbil, Iraq.

Explainer

After UAE and Qatar, could Iraq be next to leave OPEC?

Iraq is seeking a higher production quota as the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz has slashed oil revenues and plunged the country into a fiscal crisis.

Krikor Der-Hagopian at the 9th Sulaimani Forum, in Sulaimaniyah, Iraq, on April 16, 2025.

Iraq taps Krikor Der-Hagopian as first Armenian Christian ambassador to US

Baghdad’s pick of a US-educated Armenian Christian adviser as envoy to Washington underscores a bid to reset US-Iraq ties and broaden the country’s diplomatic profile.

Tom Barrack

Exclusive

Barrack heads to Iraq as US presses Baghdad on Iran-backed militias

US envoy Tom Barrack is due to meet with Iraq’s new prime minister and other top officials in Baghdad, where he will likely press US demands for Iran-backed Shiite militias be dismantled and disarmed.

Amberin Zaman

By Amberin Zaman

Reporting on geopolitics, minorities, human rights, culture

Latest News

Culture

World Cup opens amid visa disputes for Iran, Iraq and Somalia

Members of the Iranian national soccer team including midfielder Alireza Jahanbakhsh (R) arrive at Tijuana International Airport on June 7, 2026, in Tijuana, Mexico.

Syria says Iraqi oil shipments surge as Damascus courts foreign energy investment

A long convoys of Iraqi diesel-laden tanker trucks line up along the highway Tartus-Baniyas highway as they wait to unload their cargo at the Baniyas port refinery on the Mediterranean Sea, on April 15, 2026.

Israel-Iran escalation grounds flights across parts of Middle East

An Airbus A321 airliner arrives at the Mehrabad international airport during the delivery of the first batch of planes to the Iranian state airline Iran Air in the capital Tehran on Jaunary 12, 2017. - The aircraft arrived as part of an order for 100 other Airbus planes with a list price of around $20 billion (19 billion euros) on December 22, placed after the lifting of international sanctions on the Islamic republic. It will be used for internal flights landed at Tehran's Mehrabad airport. (Photo by ATTA

Amberin Zaman

Chief Correspondent

Reporting on geopolitics, minorities, human rights, culture

Jared Szuba

Defense and Security Correspondent

In Washington, DC, reporting on defense, national security, military

Beatrice Farhat

Associate Editor (Lebanon)

In Beirut, reporting on regional news, culture, conflict

Suadad al-Salhy

In Baghdad, reporting on politics and security

Lyse Mauvais

In Amman, reporting on humanitarian crises

Winthrop Rodgers

In Sulaymaniyah, reporting on Kurdish issues

AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP via Getty Images

Iraqi Shiite leader Sadr to sit out October election

Muqtada al-Sadr also said he would withdraw his support for the current government and its replacement.

An Iranian policeman checks the travel document of a pilgrim at the Mehran border point between Iran and Iraq.

Iran presses for visa waiver from Iraq

Iranian authorities continue to pressure the Iraqi government into waiving its travel visa between the two countries.

Bafel and Lahur Talabani

Talabani family feud at center of power struggle in Iraqi Kurdistan party

The apparent takeover of the Iraqi Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party by Bafel Talabani is more family affair than policy dispute.

Bagram base in Afghanistan

The Takeaway: Erdogan weighs risks of Afghan mission against benefits for US ties

Also: Gulf airline race takes off; Islamic State steps up Iraq attacks; Fortnite fatwa riles Egyptian gamers; is Israel’s army too small?; child beggars in Gaza’s cemeteries; Iraq unearths 4,000 year old city; and more! All in only about 1,500 words.

An Iraqi demonstrator carries a portrait of an activist who has been missing for weeks and was allegedly kidnapped

Iraqis campaign against impunity for violence

Activists in Iraq and abroad are seeking to pressure Iraqi authorities into preventing impunity for perpetrators of abuses.

Assyrian villagers of Iraq's Nahla Valley work to put out flames caused by Turkish airstrikes.

Turkish airstrikes ignite Assyrian lands, villagers organize firefighting response

The fire and lack of emergency response is endemic in the region as Turkish attacks routinely impact communities in Iraq’s north.

This photo taken during a press tour organized by the US-led coalition fighting the remnants of the Islamic State shows US soldiers clearing rubble at Ain al-Asad military air base, Anbar province, Iraq, Jan. 13, 2020.

Islamic State uses hit-and-run tactics in Iraq

Islamic State cells continue to target Sunni areas while armed groups thought to be close to Iran step up attacks on facilities hosting international coalition forces.

Shahmardnan Amirov, the project co-director, at work on the sounding with the Iraqi official representative Amjad Neama.

Archaeological digs unearths new details of 4,000-year-old city in Iraq

An Iraqi-Russian team accomplished the first soundings of a previously unexcavated ancient settlement about 4,000 years old in Iraq's Dhi Qar governorate.

An Iraqi man works at a generator subscription distribution room in Sadr City, east of the capital, Baghdad, on July 2, 2021.

Iraq invests in clean energy

Iraq is investing in clean energy to produce electricity, especially solar energy, which is almost available throughout the year in various regions of the country.

pmu march in baghdad

The Takeaway: Does Iran want to scuttle nuclear deal talks with militia attacks in Iraq?

Also: Fresh reporting from Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Gaza; high oil prices may undercut GCC reforms; a cure for termites in Egypt; and more.

AYMAN HENNA/AFP via Getty Images

Iraqi government calls militia's attack on US base terrorism

Militia attacks on US bases in Iraq have risen and the government is beginning to treat them as terror groups.

A picture taken on January 13, 2020, during a press tour organized by the US-led coalition fighting the remnants of the Islamic State, shows a bulldozer clearing debris from Ain al-Asad military air base in the western Iraqi province of Anbar.

Militias launch spate of attacks on US positions in Iraq

Iraq's Ain al-Asad air base was hit with the second rocket attack in just over 48 hours.