Iraq - AL-MONITOR: The Middle Eastʼs leading independent news source since 2012

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Iraq

June 27, 2026

Baghdad 2:13 pm

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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

Medical staff are pictured outside the American University of Beirut Medical Center, Beirut, Lebanon, March 17, 2021.

More Lebanese doctors leave for Iraq

As Lebanon is sinking deeper into an unprecedented financial and political crisis, many medical doctors are increasingly packing their bags and leaving for the Gulf or Europe, and more recently for Iraq.

Medical staff handle an empty vial of the AstraZeneca vaccine against COVID-19 at a vaccination center at the Messe trade fair grounds during the third wave of the coronavirus pandemic on April 8, 2021 in Erfurt, Germany.

Iraq's Kurdistan region sticks with AstraZeneca vaccine, reports no issues

Kurdish authorities say they will continue administering the vaccine following the European Union's conclusion that blood clots should be listed among "rare side effects" of the British-Swedish vaccine.

Kadhimi and Maktoum

Kadhimi deepens cooperation with Saudi Arabia, UAE in Gulf tour

Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi is pursuing two-track diplomacy, expanding cooperation with both Levant and Gulf countries.

Iraqi-US strategic dialogue

Where will new round of strategic talks with US take Iraq?

Iraq and US agreed on shifting the anti-IS coalition to training and support only, working on ending the presence of any combat forces.

Iraqis stand outside the parliament building, or Council of Representatives, in Baghdad's Green Zone on Feb. 27, 2020.

Iraq passes $89 billion federal budget bill

The budget confronted issues of unemployment, currency devaluation and non-oil revenues and was passed as lawmakers prepare for October's general election; the challenge is implementation.

US soldiers load cargo into planes during a logistical operation to clear equipment and heavy machinery from the Balad military base, north of Baghdad, on Aug. 27, 2010 a week before the US military is due to end its combat mission in the country.

Rockets land near Iraqi air base ahead of strategic dialogue with US

No one was hurt in the latest barrage, an Iraqi military official said

An Iraqi woman stands at passport control as she waits to have her passport stamped at the Arar southern Iraqi border crossing with Saudi Arabia on November 11, 2009.

Iraqi prime minister makes first visit to Saudi Arabia

Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi made his first visit to Saudi Arabia in an effort to enhance ties between the two countries.

Iraqi protesters take part in a demonstration at Tahrir Square in Baghdad on December 21, 2020.

Despite Baghdad-Erbil agreement, Iraq fails to pass federal budget bill

Disagreements over the dollar exchange rate and foreign loans have blocked the parliament from passing the country's budget bill for a fifth time.

Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels man a security checkpoint on Oct. 28, 2009 near a PKK base in the Qandil mountains, near Rania province, in northern Iraq.

Ukrainians held hostage by PKK militants in Iraqi Kurdistan over arms trafficking scam

Al-Monitor sheds light on how two Ukrainian men were taken hostage by a Kurdish militant group that was scammed by Ukrainian crooks in a million dollar plus arms trafficking deal.

Qais al-Khazali (C) commander of the Asaib Ahl al-Haq pro-Iran faction attends the funeral procession of slain Iraqi paramilitary chief Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani and eight others at the Imam Ali Shrine in the shrine city of Najaf in central Iraq on Jan. 4, 2020.

Pro-Iran parties launch smear campaign against Iraq's intelligence service

A political campaign targeting the Iraqi National Intelligence Service poses new challenges for the state’s key institutions.

Representative Gregory Meeks, (D-NY), and chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, speaks during a hearing on Capitol Hill, Washington, March 10, 2021.

House committee votes to repeal Iraq war military authorization

The resolution will next head to the full House for a vote. Bipartisan support for repealing the authorization pertaining to the 2003 US invasion of Iraq gained steam following the February US airstrikes in Syria, which the president approved without consulting Congress.

mustafa al-kadhimi

Iraq, US to resume new round of strategic dialogue

Iraq and the US have agreed to resume strategic talks over their mutual relationship and further US troop withdrawals.