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Iraq

August 24, 2026

Baghdad 10:44 pm

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Oil falls 1.8% as traders await 'toughest' sanctions on Iran

Traders are awaiting details about new US measures sure to further disrupt Iranian oil flows.

Zaidi

Iraq’s Zaidi doubles down on militia disarmament, boosting oil exports

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi made the comments amid Hormuz-related export struggles and a nearing deadline for armed groups to disarm.

Masrour Barzani, Prime Minister of the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government, gives a press conference in the autonomous region's capital Arbil on June 25, 2025.

Interview

Barzani calls for enhanced air defense for Kurdistan Region to counter drone attacks

Iraqi Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani backs US-led regional economic integration efforts and lauds US partnership in an exclusive interview with Al-Monitor.

Masrour Barzani

Masrour Barzani

KRG Prime Minister

Latest News

Exclusive

Saudi Arabia wants Iran-backed militia 'heads to roll' in Iraq amid talks with Tehran

AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP via Getty Images

Amberin Zaman

By Amberin Zaman

Reporting on geopolitics, minorities, human rights, culture

Explainer

Iraq seeks special Hormuz access from Iran in scramble to keep oil flowing

AHMAD AL-RUBAYE / AFP via Getty Images

Iran’s Ghalibaf makes high-level visit to Iraq ahead of disarmament deadline

Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf speaks during a press conference at the site where Qasem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was killed by a US airstrike in 2020 near the airport upon his arrival in Baghdad, on Aug. 19, 2026.

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 Interior Minister Mohammed Salem al-Ghabban (L) and Iraq's Defence Minister Khaled al-Obeidi (R) attend a ceremony marking the Iraqi Police Day's 93rd anniversary at a police academy in Baghdad January 8, 2015. REUTERS/Ahmed Saad (IRAQ - Tags: CIVIL UNREST MILITARY ANNIVERSARY LAW) - RTR4KL0R

Overhauling Iraq’s intelligence services

The political quota system and subsequent appointment of incompetent intelligence services leaders have severely hampered Iraq's ability to fight terrorist forces despite an abundance of confrontations and episodes from which to learn.

Senate to wrap up defense bill

A look at the Middle East issues Congress will be addressing the week of June 15.

Supporters wave Turkish national and party flags as they shout slogans outside the AK Party headquarters in Ankara, Turkey, June 7, 2015. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan's hopes of assuming greater powers suffered a serious blow on Sunday when the ruling AK Party failed to win an outright majority in a parliamentary election, partial results showed. With 94 percent of ballots counted, the AKP had taken 41 percent of the vote, according to broadcaster CNN Turk, a result which will leave it struggling to for

Will AKP's losses spark Turkish re-think on Syria?

The ruling Justice and Development Party lost Kurdish support over President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Syria policies; Eastern patriarchs meet in Damascus to reassure Middle East Christian communities.

People gather at Abu Hanifa mosque during a celebration ceremony marking the birth anniversary of Prophet Mohammad, in Baghdad's Adhamiya district January 2, 2015. REUTERS/Thaier al-Sudani (IRAQ - Tags: RELIGION ANNIVERSARY) - RTR4JXAS

Iraqis demand better security for religious pilgrimages

After vandals attacked Sunni properties in Adhamiya, Iraqis are calling for official regulation and organization of religious events to avoid sectarian violence.

A woman uses a traditional knitting machine to make a carpet in Baghdad's Sadr city, April 3, 2007. REUTERS/Kareem Raheem (IRAQ) - RTR1O9DA

The last of Iraq's hand-woven carpets

Once an Iraqi trademark and a sought-after speciality, it seems like the handmade carpet industry in Iraq is drawing its last breath.

Fighters of al-Qaeda linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant carry their weapons during a parade at the Syrian town of Tel Abyad, near the border with Turkey January 2, 2014. Picture taken January 2, 2014. REUTERS/Yaser Al-Khodor (SYRIA - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST CONFLICT) - RTX170UI

IS growing in numbers, money

The Islamic State is gaining in influence while those opposing it search in vain for ways to counter the extremist organization.

Defense bill could keep sanctions pressure on Iran

A look at the Middle East issues Congress will be addressing the week of June 8.

Selahattin Demirtas, co-chairman of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), speaks as his supporters wave Kurdish (L) and Turkish national (R) flags in the background, during an election rally for Turkey's June 7 parliamentary election, in Istanbul, Turkey, June 6, 2015. Turkey's Kurdish-rooted opposition party, which could scupper Tayyip Erdogan's ambitions for sweeping new powers, accused the President on Saturday of a lack of respect for supporters killed in a bomb attack in an election rally an

Will voters reject Turkey’s ‘precious loneliness’?

Parliamentary elections on June 7 could signal a shift in Turkey’s foreign policy; Islamic State’s radicalization campaign extends to Iraqi Kurdistan; Iran not backing down in Syria; Soleimani promises "surprise" in battle against Islamic State.

Iraqi men demonstrate in Baghdad, to show support for Yemen's Shi'ite Houthis and in protest of an air campaign in Yemen by a Saudi-led coalition, March 31, 2015. Saudi troops clashed with Yemeni Houthi fighters on Tuesday in the heaviest exchange of cross-border fire since the start of a Saudi-led air offensive last week, while Yemen's foreign minister called for a rapid Arab intervention on the ground. REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani - RTR4VNDE

Is new ambassador sign of thaw in Baghdad-Riyadh relations?

Saudi Arabia restores diplomatic relations with Iraq by appointing an ambassador to Baghdad, but the kingdom will need to recognize the diversity of the Shiite political actors in Iraq and shift its foreign policy accordingly. ‪

Workers are pictured at a shisha manufacturing factory in Baghdad December 17, 2014. Picture taken December 17, 2014. REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani (IRAQ - Tags: SOCIETY BUSINESS) - RTR4JJAB

Iraqi workers protest for wage payment

Iraq's Ministry of Industry has been unable to pay workers' salaries for several months, placing an even heavier burden on an already sinking industrial sector.

Smoke rises from the site of a bomb attack in Erbil, the capital of Iraq's Kurdistan region, April 17, 2015. A car bomb exploded on a road outside the U.S. Consulate and compound in Erbil on Friday, a Reuters witness said. The consulate houses U.S. diplomats and staff but there was no immediate reports of casualties. Gunfire was heard immediately after the blast but stopped later, the witness said. REUTERS/Stringer - RTR4XRWU

Islamic State infiltrates Iraqi Kurdistan

The Islamic State is exploiting divides in Iraqi Kurdistan to radicalize youths.

Children, who fled from the violence in Mosul, play during sunset inside the Khazer refugee camp on the outskirts of Arbil, in Iraq's Kurdistan region, June 27, 2014. Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the most influential Shi'ite cleric in Iraq, called on the country's leaders on Friday to choose a prime minister within the next four days, a dramatic political intervention that could hasten the end of Nuri al-Maliki's eight year rule. REUTERS/Ahmed Jadallah (IRAQ - Tags: CIVIL UNREST POLITICS SOCIETY TPX IMAGES

The 'Caliphate Cubs' of IS

According to witnesses, the Islamic State has been recruiting children in Iraq and Syria and enrolling them in special training camps.