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

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Iraq

June 28, 2026

Baghdad 5:50 am

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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

Iraqi demonstrators carry the portraits of slain protesters during a demonstration in Tahrir Square in the centre of Iraq's capital Baghdad on October 1, 2020, commemorating the first anniversary of the massive decentralised anti-government protest movement against unemployment, poor public services, and endemic corruption. - Back in October 2019, unprecedented protests demanded the fall of Iraq's ruling class. One year on, with a new government in place and nearly 600 protesters killed, almost nothing has

Iraqi protests hit one year mark

On the anniversary of the start of Iraq's massive protests, Iraqis are preparing for a new wave of demonstrations in Baghdad and other cities.

Rockets land in Erbil as US threatens embassy pullout

Iraqi Kurdistan’s counterterrorism service said the rockets were fired by paramilitary groups in Ninevah province in northern Iraq.

Iraqi counter-terrorism forces stand guard in front of the US embassy in the capital Baghdad on January 2, 2020. - The US embassy siege by pro-Iran protesters in Baghdad lasted just over a day, but analysts warn it could have lasting implications for Iraq's complex security sector and diplomatic ties. On Tuesday, hundreds of Hashed supporters stormed the high-security Green Zone and besieged the US embassy. The ease with which they breezed past US-trained forces demonstrated the Hashed's dominance in Iraq,

Iraqi foreign minister warns US Embassy pullout would be 'dangerous' for region

Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein warned an American withdrawal could cause other members of the anti-IS coalition to pull their diplomatic staff.

Syriac manuscripts recovered from suspected Islamic State fighter in Mosul

Stolen manuscripts resurface as Iraqi security forces engage Islamic State cells, but safety concerns for minority communities still loom large.

Prime Minister of the Regional Government of Iraqi Kurdistan Masrour Barzani (L) welcomes Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi in Arbil, the capital of the northern Iraqi Kurdish autonomous region, on September 10, 2020. (Photo by SAFIN HAMED / AFP) (Photo by SAFIN HAMED/AFP via Getty Images)

Kidnappings continue in Iraq’s disputed territories

Despite improved security coordination among Iraqi, Kurdish and coalition forces, Islamic State remnants still threaten residents.

Militias keep up attacks, hit US base in Kurdistan Region

Rocket attacks continued in Iraq, as Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi seeks to rein in armed factions following the US government's threat to close its embassy in Iraq.

New Iraqi committee to build nuclear reactors, combat electricity woes

The new committee will tackle a decadeslong electricity problem, which is one of the complaints of last October's protesters.

Militia rockets kill five civilians in Iraqi capital as US mulls embassy withdrawal

Two women and three children were killed at a Baghdad home on Monday as the United States threatens to pull its diplomatic mission.

UK returning 4,000-year-old artifact to Iraq discovered in online auction

The Sumerian relic is thought to be among thousands of artifacts stolen from Iraq in the last century.

Smoke billows following a reported Russian airstrike on the western countryside of the mostly rebel-held Syrian province of Idlib, on September 20, 2020. (Photo by Mohammed AL-RIFAI / AFP) (Photo by MOHAMMED AL-RIFAI/AFP via Getty Images)

Intel: HTS claims credit for death of Iraqi IS leader's brother

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham has claimed responsibility for killing the brother of Hajj Taysir, an Iraqi Islamic State emir killed by the United States earlier this year.

Iraq's Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi, mask-clad due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, looks on during a joint press conference with the French president in Baghdad on September 2, 2020. - French President Emmanuel Macron landed in Baghdad on his first official trip to Iraq, where he hopes to help the country reassert its "sovereignty" after years of conflict. (Photo by GONZALO FUENTES / POOL / AFP) (Photo by GONZALO FUENTES/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Significant challenges face Kadhimi’s economic reform project

The economic reform project that Mustafa al-Kadhimi's government is supposed to propose soon faces great challenges related to the need to get parliament’s approval before taking any step.

A member of an Iraqi Shiite paramilitary group helps a fellow protesters holding a placard denouncing the United States climb on the outer wall of the US embassy in Baghdad's Green Zone during an angry demonstration on December 31, 2019 to denounce weekend US air strikes that killed Iran-backed fighters in Iraq. Arabic graffiti reads: "Assaib Ahl al-Haq" -- a pro-Iran Iraqi Shiite group whose leaders were recently hit with US sanctions. - It was the first time in years protesters have been able to reach the

US shakes up Iraqi factions with reported warning on militias

The Trump administration has warned Iraqi President Barham Salih that it could close its US Embassy in Baghdad if the militias' attacks against its bases and convoys continue.