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

Iran cover image

Iraq

August 25, 2026

Baghdad 12:10 pm

45°C

Leon Neal/Getty Images

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

Policemen check oil pipelines during a patrol in Shueiba refinery in Iraq's southern province of Basra August 26, 2010. Baghdad has signed multi-billion deals with oil firms to boost output capacity to 12 million barrels a day in seven years, rivalling top oil exporter Saudi Arabia. That could give Iraq the money it needs to rebuild after decades of war, sanctions and economic degradation. But everything depends on whether the OPEC member can secure its vital oilfields, refineries and other infrastructure a

Iran wary of Iraqi plans to increase oil exports

Though its own exports are limited by international sanctions, Iran has criticized Iraq’s intentions to fill the market gap by increasing its own oil exports.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu (C) listens to his advisor (L) as he walks in for a press briefing with Bahrain Foreign Minister Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed al-Khalifa in Manama, November 24, 2013. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed (BAHRAIN - Tags: POLITICS) - RTX15R41

The Davutoglu charm offensive

Despite some new messages from Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, a "reset" of Turkey’s foreign policy seems a stretch.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu (L) arrive to speak to reporters at the State Department in Washington November 18, 2013.
REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque (UNITED STATES - Tags: POLITICS) - RTX15J4C

Turkey resets ties with US

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu boldly characterizes the relationship with Washington as "the backbone of Turkey’s foreign policy."

Iraqi Shi'ite radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr (C) takes part in Friday prayers at the Kufa mosque near Najaf, 160 km (100 miles) south of Baghdad May 10, 2013. REUTERS/Ahmad Mousa (IRAQ - Tags: RELIGION) - RTXZHC5

Sadr blends religion, populism in Iraqi politics

The populist Shiite Sadrist Movement demonstrates its leader’s ability to bring a new dynamic to the political scene in Iraq, which is too often marked by polarization and extremism.

Diplomats from the United States and Israel are silhouetted as they join about 100 mourners at a ceremony, held on Thursday in memory of veteran Jewish leader Carmen Weinstein, at Sha'ar Hashamayim (Gate of Heaven) synagogue in downtown Cairo, April 18, 2013. Weinstein, 82, died last Saturday at her home in Cairo where she was known over the past two decades for leading efforts to preserve the overwhelmingly Muslim country's Jewish heritage. REUTERS/Asmaa Waguih (EGYPT - Tags: RELIGION POLITICS OBITUARY) -

Jews from Arab countries: the forgotten refugees

A UN conference addresses the status of Jews from Arab states who were expelled from their homeland after the creation of the state of Israel.

Iraq's Kurdistan President Masoud Barzani votes at a polling station in Arbil, capital of the autonomous Kurdistan region, about 350 km (217 miles) north of Baghdad September 21, 2013. Kurds went to the polls on Saturday to elect a new parliament in an election that is being dubbed as the most crucial in the history of Iraqi Kurdish political powers, with potential to change the political structure of the next parliament and government cabinet.About 1,129 candidates representing 32 political entities are co

Turkey, Iran influence Iraqi Kurdistan politics

The post-election politics of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq is subject to relationships among Iran, Iraq and Turkey.

Women mourn during a funeral of a victim killed in a bomb attack, in Najaf, 160 km (100 miles) south of Baghdad, November 14, 2013. A suicide bomber blew himself up during a Shi'ite Muslim religious ritual in the eastern Iraqi city of al-Sadiya on Thursday, killing at least 35 people and wounding 75, a senior official and security sources said. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, which came on the day of Ashura, a holy ritual when Shi'ites commemorate the death of Imam Hussein, a gra

Where is 'Democracy Brigade' to fight sectarian terrorists?

The proliferation of sectarian violence overwhelms the region, which needs a democratic backlash.

Shi'ite pilgrims run between the Imam Hussein and Imam Abbas shrines as part of a ritual of the Ashura ceremony in Kerbala, 80 km (50 miles) southwest of Baghdad, November 14, 2013. During Ashura, Shi'ite Muslims commemorate the slaying of Prophet Muhammad's grandson Hussein in Kerbala in 680 AD. The most important day in the Shi'ite calendar, Ashura has become a show of strength in Iraq for a majority whose public worship was repressed by former dictator Saddam Hussein. REUTERS/Mushtaq Muhammed (IRAQ - Ta

Iraq's religious minorities and Shiite mourning holidays

Mandeans and Christians in Iraq adjust to and sometimes join the commemorations of the death of Hussein bin Ali during the lengthy Shiite mourning period.

Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan (R) and President of Iraqi Kurdistan Masoud Barzani greet people during a ceremony in Diyarbakir November 16, 2013. The president of Iraqi Kurdistan called on Turkey's Kurds to back a flagging peace process with Ankara on Saturday, making his first visit to southeastern Turkey in two decades in a show of support for PM Erdogan. Barzani's trip to Diyarbakir, the main city in Turkey's Kurdish-dominated southeast, comes as Ankara finalises billions of dollars of energy d

Erdogan-Barzani 'Diyarbakir encounter' milestone

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, for the first time ever, says "Kurdistan."

Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, President of Iraqi Kurdistan Masoud Barzani (L) and Kurdish poet and singer Sivan Perwer (R), who had fled Turkey in the 1970s, greet people, as they are flanked by politicians and chidren during a ceremony in Diyarbakir November 16, 2013. The president of Iraqi Kurdistan called on Turkey's Kurds to back a flagging peace process with Ankara on Saturday, making his first visit to southeastern Turkey in two decades in a show of support for Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan

An atmosphere of peace, not of farewell

Kurdistan Region of Iraq President Massoud Barzani joined Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a historic visit to Diyarbakir.

A demonstrator gestures as he stands behind burning barricades during a protest in the Tuzlucayir neighbourhood of Ankara September 9, 2013. Billed as a symbol of peace between two faiths, a new place of worship has turned Tuzlucayir, a poor suburb of Ankara, into a battleground and exposed wider sectarian tensions within Turkey. The project's blueprint envisages a Sunni mosque rising side by side with a new cemevi, or assembly house, to be used by Alevis, Turkey's biggest religious minority. But with its c

Turkey’s Alevi question

The government of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is seeking to heal old wounds with Turkey’s Alevi community, while stepping back from sectarian regional policies.

Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) head Saleh Muslim speaks during a conference in Paris November 13, 2013. Islamist groups in northern Syria are weakening after months of fighting and Kurdish militias are gaining ground, top Kurdish leader Muslim said on Wednesday, vowing to continue their advances. To match SYRIA-KURDS/ REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer (FRANCE - Tags: POLITICS CONFLICT) - RTX15C6C

Kurds divided over Syrian autonomy

The Democratic Union Party (PYD) is proceeding with its plans for a transitional government in the Kurdistan region of western Syria, despite the opposition of the Kurdish National Council and Iraqi Kurdistan President Massoud Barzani.