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

Iran cover image

Iraq

February 23, 2026

Baghdad 4:04 pm

27°C

Heather Diehl/Getty Images

US court overturns Trump global tariffs: What it means for MENA

Trump's defining economic policy of his second term has been dealt a key blow, upending a tariff regime that set levies in the Middle East as high as 41% for Syria even as most regional countries were insulated from the fallout.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stands amid debris outside the Soroka Hospital in the southern city of Beersheba, after it was hit by a missile fired from Iran on June 19, 2025. Israel's defence minister warned that Iran's supreme leader "can no longer be allowed to exist" after a hospital was hit in an Iranian missile strike on June 19, spiking tensions in the week-old war. (Photo by Marc Israel SELLEM / POOL / AFP) (Photo by MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Analysis

Despite warnings from Israel's defense elite, Netanyahu pushes for Iran strike

Although Israeli advisers warn against appearing to drag the US into war, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not hidden his desire to help topple the Islamic Republic.

In Tel Aviv, reporting on national security, Israeli politics, defense

Iraqis raise their flags during a protest at the entrance to the Hanging Bridge, one of the entrances to the Green Zone in Baghdad on Jan. 28, 2026.

In letter, US lays out 7 demands for next Iraqi PM, with emphasis on Iran

The Trump administration is pressing Baghdad on Iranian influence and the nomination of former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, with Iraq's top diplomat claiming the US stipulations include a "hint" toward potential sanctions.

Former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki delivers a speech during a campaign rally for the State of Law Coalition ahead of the country's parliamentary elections in Baghdad on Nov. 7, 2025.

Analysis

Can Maliki overcome Trump opposition to reclaim Iraq’s PM post?

US President Donald Trump’s opposition to the former prime minister and reports of potential retribution toward Iraq are receiving pushback in the country, which is already suffering from political paralysis.

Adam Lucente

By Adam Lucente

In New York City, reporting on regional news, militancy, climate change

Latest News

Exclusive

100 non-Syrian Kurds return to PKK’s Qandil stronghold under SDF-Damascus deal

SDF commander in chief, Mazlum Kobane, meets with Nechirvan Barzani, the president of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, on Feb. 5, 2026.

Amberin Zaman

By Amberin Zaman

Reporting on geopolitics, minorities, human rights, culture

Iraq’s Maliki rejects Trump criticism, vows to stay in PM race

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki speaks during a press conference on May 11, 2011, at the green zone area in Baghdad, Iraq.

How US-India trade deal could impact Mideast energy, trade routes

US President Donald Trump shakes hands with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a joint press conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington, on Feb. 13, 2025.

Iraq's Shiite bloc holds talks with Kurds as deadlock on president, PM persists

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al Sudani meets the Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Region, Masrour Barzani, in Erbil on Monday.

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

Basra protests build in Iraq as substandard services persist

As summer arrives in Iraq, a new wave of demonstrations is beginning in the south, possibly jeopardizing Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi's government.

Kurdish region's Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani speaks during a news conference in Erbil, Iraq November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Azad Lashkari - RC1D69B71E20

Nechirvan Barzani in Baghdad to discuss oil

The KRG's new president, Nechirvan Barzani, traveled to Baghdad to meet the Iraqi prime minister and discuss the two sides' outstanding oil dispute.

Pope Francis arrives to takes part in a conference in Naples, Italy June 21, 2019. REUTERS/Ciro de Luca - RC158DB9C340

Iraqis welcome Pope Francis' plan to visit in 2020

Following several requests made by Iraqi leaders to Pope Francis to visit Iraq, he reveals his desire to come next year.

BEIRUT, LEBANON - JUNE 19 : (----EDITORIAL USE ONLY MANDATORY CREDIT - "LEBANESE PRIME MINISTRY OFFICE / HANDOUT" - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS----) Russian Presidential Envoy for Syria Alexander Lavrentyev (L) meets Lebanese President Michel Aoun (R) in Beirut, Lebanon on June 19, 2019. (Photo by LEBANESE PRIME MINISTRY OFFICE / HANDOUT/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

Russian diplomats sweep through Lebanon, Iraq, Syria

Russia's Syria envoy Alexander Lavrentiev and others recently paid important visits to the Middle East to present Russia’s refugee plan and discuss the latest regional developments.

Turkish army tanks control the centre of the old medieval Kurdish town of Ammadiya, July 13. 2004. Turkish forces entered Iraq's Kurdish zone in 1997 under a year-long agreement with Kurdish authorities to pursue militants from a Turkish Kurd rebel group, but with their territory now part of a newly sovereign Iraq, Kurds feel the Turks may have overstayed their welcome. Picture taken July 13, 2004. REUTERS/Sasa Kralj RCS/DBP - RP5DRICSWDAA

Turkey mulls permanent military presence in northern Iraq

Turkey is considering setting up additional military infrastructure in Iraqi Kurdistan as its operations against militants there continue.

Iraqi parliamentary groupings join hands in bid to oust Abdel Mahdi

A bloc of Iraqi political parties comes together to form a strong opposition against Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi in an apparent bid to remove him from office.

Kirkuk court issues arrest warrant for acting governor

An integrity court in Kirkuk has issued an arrest warrant for Rakan Saeed al-Jabouri, the acting governor of Kirkuk, on financial corruption charges.

Judge Medhat al-Mahmoud, presiding over the supreme federal court, reads a verdict on appeals concerning amendment of an election law in Baghdad, Iraq June 21, 2018. REUTERS/Abdullah Dhiaa al-Deen - RC134238AFB0

Iraq considers appointing powerful clerics to high court

Iraq's legislature is mulling over a bill that would change the makeup of the country's top court to include Islamic scholars, stirring controversy over how much influence they should have.

A worker walks at the Zubair oilfield in Basra, Iraq May 9, 2018. REUTERS/Essam al-Sudani - RC15616A6B70

Cancer hits residents of Iraqi oil city of Basra

The cancer rate has been on the rise in the Iraqi oil-rich province of Basra, and many blame this on increasing pollution and on depleted uranium dust from weapons used in the 1991 Gulf War.

Members of Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) demonstrate their skills during a rehabilitation military exercise at a graduation ceremony in Basra, Iraq January 31, 2019. REUTERS/Essam al-Sudani - RC1DDE9A9E60

Iran-backed militias struggle to resist US pressure

Feeling the burden of US sanctions on Iran, the Popular Mobilization Units are flexing their muscles in Iraq, trying to strengthen their position.

MUNICH, GERMANY - FEBRUARY 17: Haider Al-Abadi, Prime Minister of Iraq delivers a speech at the 2018 Munich Security Conference on February 17, 2018 in Munich, Germany. The annual conference, which brings together political and defense leaders from across the globe, is taking place under heightened tensions between the USA, together with its western allies, and Russia. (Photo by Sebastian Widmann/Getty Images)

Is Abadi looking to return to prime minister's post?

Former Iraqi prime minister Haider al-Abadi has resigned from the Islamic Dawa Party, raising questions about his possible return to the premiership.

Fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) celebrate on vehicles taken from Iraqi security forces, at a street in city of Mosul, June 12, 2014. Since Tuesday, black clad ISIL fighters have seized Iraq's second biggest city Mosul and Tikrit, home town of former dictator Saddam Hussein, as well as other towns and cities north of Baghdad. They continued their lightning advance on Thursday, moving into towns just an hour's drive from the capital. Picture taken June 12, 2014. REUTERS/Stringer (I

Five years later, calls for accountability over fall of Mosul continue

On the fifth anniversary of the fall of Mosul, people decry that no one has been held accountable for the tragedy.