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Iraq

May 8, 2026

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US sets expectations for Iraq’s next PM to confront Iranian militias

The Trump administration is cautiously sizing up Iraq’s new prime minister-designate, Ali al-Zaidi, as a potential partner in pushing back on Iranian influence.

Zaidi

Analysis

Iraq’s Zaidi offers economic promise for Turkey but unknowns loom

Iraq’s prime minister-designate, Ali al-Zaidi, is expected to sustain growing economic and strategic ties with Turkey thanks to his business-oriented approach, though uncertainty over his political stance could test cooperation on sensitive issues.

Barin Kayaoglu

By Barin Kayaoglu

In Ankara, reporting on geopolitics and national security

Ali Al-Zaidi

Analysis

US banking on Iraqi turnaround with nomination of Zaidi as new PM

Trump signals hope for a "tremendous new chapter” in US-Iraq ties with the nomination of Ali Al-Zaidi as prime minister.

Week in Review

By Week in Review

Crops of wheat and barley in Terbol village on May 10, 2022, in Bekaa Valley, Lebanon.

Analysis

MENA wheat importers face food security risks as Hormuz crisis festers

Home to many of the world's largest wheat importers, the Middle East and North Africa face acute food security risks as the US-Israel-Iran war disrupts global fertilizer flows and pushes up prices.

Samuel Wendel

By Samuel Wendel

In Washington, DC, reporting on regional business and tech

Latest News

Trump congratulates Iraq PM-designate Zaidi in call: What to know

Iraq's prime minister-designate, Ali al-Zaidi, at Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani's office on April 28, 2026.

Meet Ali al-Zaidi, businessman and Iraq's new prime minister-designate

Prime Minister Mohammed S. al-Sudani met with Prime Minister-designate Ali Faleh al-Zaidi on April 28, 2026.

Iraq's Shiite alliance nominates Ali al-Zaidi as PM candidate: What to know

Ali al-Zaidi

Split over Maliki, Iraq’s Shiite bloc delays PM vote as deadline nears: What to know

Qais al-Khazali (L), head of the Asaib Ahl al-Haq group, stands along with former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki after casting their ballots at a polling station in Baghdad on Nov. 11, 2025.

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 Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki (R) speaks next to his Iraqi Kurdish counterpart Nechirvan Barzani during a meeting of the Council of Ministers in Arbil, about 350 km (220 miles) north of Baghdad June 9, 2013. Maliki visited the Kurdistan region on Sunday for the first time in more than two years, in an attempt to resolve a long-running dispute over oil and land that has strained Iraq's unity to the limit. REUTERS/Azad Lashkari (IRAQ - Tags: POLITICS) - RTX10H5T

Iraqi oil dispute reveals KRG vulnerability

There might be a short-term fix before the Iraqi elections in April, but a lasting solution on the Baghdad-Erbil hydrocarbon question is not imminent.

A staff member points at a screen showing a map of the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline at Turkey's Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, which is run by state-owned Petroleum Pipeline Corporation (BOTAS), some 70 km (43.5 miles) from Adana February 19, 2014. Crude oil flow through the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline linking Iraq to Turkey restarted on Wednesday at a rate of at a rate of about 300,000-350,000 barrels per day (bpd), a Turkish energy official said. The pipeline, which carries Kirkuk crude to Turkey's Mediterranean port

Iraq’s budget problems go beyond Erbil-Baghdad crisis

As the conflict continues between Baghdad and Erbil regarding Iraqi Kurdistan's share in the state budget, there is a pressing need for the government to address other budget-related issues, namely its near total dependence on oil.

Women demonstrate against the lack of basic services in central Baghdad on Valentine's Day February 14, 2011. About 100 residents carried placards and chanted slogans demanding better basic services and a stop to corruption in the country. The placards read "Do not erect a tower, just fix the sewage" and "We need electricity power, not ministers' promises". REUTERS/Thaier al-Sudani (IRAQ - Tags: CIVIL UNREST POLITICS) - RTR2IKXM

Valentine’s Day a day of hope in Iraq

Iraqis began celebrating Valentine’s Day after the fall of the regime of former President Saddam Hussein in 2003, but it is not just for couples — it serves as a means to express one’s love for the country.

Mourners react during a funeral of an Iraqi soldier, who was killed during clashes in Ramadi, in Najaf, 160 km (99 miles) south of Baghdad, January 10, 2014. Militants of the al Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), which is also fighting in neighbouring Syria, took control of Falluja and parts of nearby Ramadi on January 1 with the help of sympathetic armed tribesmen. The prospect of an imminent Iraqi army assault on Falluja receded on Friday as negotiators tried to work out a deal unde

Armed groups on rise in Anbar

The Anbar crisis is escalating to the point where people have lost their faith and trust in the army and government as sectarian fighting intensifies.

A man mourns near the body of his brother, wrapped in a blanket, who was among those killed during Sunday night's suicide bomb attack at a popular coffee shop in the town of Tuz Khurmatu, 170 km (106 miles) north of Baghdad, July 17, 2006. The attack killed 21 people, mostly elderly men. REUTERS/Slahaldeen Rasheed (IRAQ) - RTR1FKIO

Turkmen caught between Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan

Iraqi Turkmen are getting pressure from the Turkish government to work more closely with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) of Iraq.

A woman walks past the site of a bomb attack in Balad Ruz, in northeastern Iraq, January 3, 2014. A suicide bomber driving a car packed with explosives killed at least 12 people who had gathered to buy and sell cars in Iraq on Thursday, local officials said. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, which took place near the car markets in the town of Balad Ruz, in northeastern Iraq, injuring another 25 people. REUTERS/Mohammed Adnan (IRAQ - Tags: CIVIL UNREST) - RTX170P9

Iraq’s battle against extremists spreads outside of Anbar

Although the Iraqi government launched a military operation in Anbar in December 2013 aimed at eradicating terrorism, it seems the protracted clashes have resulted in terrorist groups expanding their scope to other provinces.

Masked Sunni Muslims gunmen take up position with their weapons during clashes with Iraqi security forces outside the city of Falluja, 70 km (44 miles) west of Baghdad, February 23, 2014. Members of the extremist Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant are holed up inside Fallujah along with Sunni fighters angry at Prime Minister Nouri Maliki over what they say are policies which discriminate against Iraq's Sunni minority. The Iraqi government declared a ceasefire over the weekend but clashes flared periodica

Iraq's failing state institutions

The Iraqi government appoints state officials on the basis of politics rather than competence, something that has led to many state projects failing without anyone being held accountable.

Shi'ite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr speaks in Najaf, 160 km (99 miles) south of Baghdad, February 18, 2014. Sadr stuck to his decision to leave political life and dissolve his movement, saying that politics had become a way to inflict injustice. Sadr, who led revolts against U.S. forces in Iraq before their pullout and became a major influence in the government, initially announced his retirement on Saturday via a handwritten statement on his website. REUTERS/Handout/Office of Moqtada al-Sadr (IRAQ - Tag

Is Muqtada al-Sadr retiring or repositioning?

After Iraqi Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr declared his intention to withdraw from politics, signs suggest that it may have been a move aimed at political repositioning before the upcoming elections.

An Iraqi man holds a picture of top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Husseini al-Sistani at a campaign rally for Ammar al-Hakim, head of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC), which is part of the broad Shiite coalition the Iraqi National Alliance, in Baghdad March 5, 2010. Politicians launched into their last day of campaigning as more than a million Iraqis living abroad began voting in an election that could turn the page on years of deadly sectarian strife. AFP PHOTO/AHMAD AL-RUBAYE (Photo credit sho

Sistani's critics want greater activism in Iraqi politics

Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani is under increasing attacks from within the Shiite religious establishment for his reserved and amicable approach.

A resident buys newspapers from a kiosk in Baghdad February 23, 2009. A boom in local media since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 has given Iraqis a choice between some 200 print outlets, 60 radio stations and 30 TV channels in Arabic, Turkmen, Syriac and two Kurdish dialects. Yet most media outlets remain dominated by sectarian and party patrons who use them for their own ends, and have yet to become commercially sustainable enterprises let alone watchdogs keeping government under scrutiny, the favoured West

Iraqi journalists fear censorship after government issues arrest warrant

After an arrest warrant was issued against a prominent journalist in Iraq, renewed fear of a return to censorship has emerged among journalists and activists.

Iraqi Christians on a spiritual pilgrimage to the birthplace of biblical patriarch Abraham visit the ruins of Ur, southern Nassiriya province, about 300 km (185 miles) southeast of Baghdad, November 22, 2013. About 150 Christians from the southern Iraqi city of Basra took part in the pilgrimage to the ancient Sumerian city of Ur, revered as the birthplace of Abraham. Picture taken November 22, 2013. REUTERS/Essam Al-Sudani (IRAQ - Tags: RELIGION TRAVEL) - RTX15SNW

Iraq moves to preserve Christian heritage, Syriac language

In light of the mass exodus of Christians from Iraq following the 2003 war, the government has initiated steps to teach Christian religious studies and the Syriac language in some public schools.

BAGHDAD, IRAQ - JUNE 6: Dr. Ali Bayrakdar, a plastic surgeon at the Al Wasity Hospital , performs an operation on June 6, 2004 in Baghdad, Iraq. Bayrakdar is a specialist in reconstructive surgery and has done some pioneering work in his field. He and his team deal primarily with wounds sustained through the ongoing violence in Iraq and perform under severely strained conditions with inadequate medical facilities. An average doctor in his position can expect to earn around $350 to $400 a month. Bayrakdar'

Rising rate of plastic surgeries sparks debate in Iraq

Plastic surgery is on the rise in Iraq as more and more young women rebel against conservative social norms and traditions.