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Iraq

June 27, 2026

Baghdad 10:37 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

A member of the Iraqi security forces inspects the damage outside the Zawraa park in the capital Baghdad on November 18, 2020, after volley of rockets slammed into the Iraqi capital breaking a month-long truce on attacks against the US embassy. - According to the Iraqi military, four of the rockets landed in the high-security Green Zone, where the US embassy and other foreign missions are based. Another three rockets also hit other parts of Baghdad, killing one girl and wounding five civilians. All seven r

Rockets target US Embassy in Baghdad ahead of anniversary of Soleimani killing

At least one Iraqi civilian was injured in the strike, the US State Department said.

Iraqi banks undertake overdue reforms

Iraqi banks have undertaken reforms, coinciding with the Iraqi government's measures to reform the economy.

Iraq, KRG, Turkey find common ground in response to PKK

Kurdish group increasingly isolated; meanwhile, Syrian Kurds boxed in by Turkey, Russia and Assad.

NYT retracts main story in hit 'Caliphate' podcast, citing failures

New York Times reporter Rukmini Callimachi is being taken off the terrorism beat after an inquiry found missteps in verifying claims that the podcast's main subject had been an IS fighter.

DOHUK, IRAQ - OCTOBER 17: Syrian refugees children who fled the Turkish incursion in Northern Syria receive medicine for polio and measles as more than 200 arrive at the facility on October 17, 2019 in Dohuk, Iraq. More than 1000 refugees have arrived in Northern Iraq since the beginning of the conflict, with many saying they paid to be smuggled through the Syrian border. (Photo by Byron Smith/Getty Images)

Iraq vaccinates 2 million children against polio

The Iraqi health authorities affirmed the country is polio-free and mass vaccinations aim to prevent the spread of the disease.

A handout picture taken and released on December 17 , 2020 by the Turkish Presidential Press service shows Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) welcomes Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi (L) at the Presidential Complex with an official ceremony in Ankara. (Photo by Murat CETINMUHURDAR / TURKISH PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SERVICE / AFP) / XGTY / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / TURKISH PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SERVICE/ MURAT CETINMUHURDAR" - NO MARKETING - NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS -

Iraq, Turkey agree to cooperate on counterterrorism, trade

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi committed to enhanced cooperation on terrorism, trade and energy, although Turkey’s ongoing military operations in Iraqi Kurdistan may remain a source of contention between the two neighbors.

Muqtada al-Sadr shakes up Iraqi politics by calling for new Shite bloc

Muqtada al-Sadr’s calls to restore the "Shiite Home" were viewed as an attempt to revive the electoral Shiite alliance that cracked during recent legislative elections.

Armed groups target liquor shops in Iraq

Shops selling alcoholic beverages in Baghdad are constantly targeted. Some Iraqis see this as part of the war on their personal freedoms.

Members of the Iraqi-Kurdish Peshmerga forces attend a handover and US military and logistic assistance distribution ceremony to the Peshmerga Ministry of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in the Arbil the capital of the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq on November 10, 2020. (Photo by SAFIN HAMED / AFP) (Photo by SAFIN HAMED/AFP via Getty Images)

One reported dead in fight between Kurdish groups in Iraq

A peshmerga soldier in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq reportedly died during a fight with the PKK on Sunday amid tensions between the two groups as well as with Turkey.

International court finds UK war crimes in Iraq but will not open investigation

The International Criminal Court has closed its probe because it could not conclude that UK authorities were unwilling to genuinely carry out an investigation.

Dozens killed, injured in Iraq’s Kurdistan protests as some consider leaving

Protests in the southeastern part of the Kurdistan Region over unpaid public sector salaries amid an ongoing budget dispute with Baghdad have led to several deaths.

Death toll mounts as Iraqi Kurdish protests continue

The unrest in Iraq's northern Sulaimaniyah province has left at least nine people dead.