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Iraq

July 18, 2026

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US President Donald Trump (R) shakes hands with Prime Minister of Iraq Ali al-Zaidi during a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office of the White House, Washington, July 14, 2026.

Analysis

What Zaidi's Washington visit means for US investment in Iraq

Iraq could greatly benefit from US investment in gas capture, which could help reduce the country's dependence on neighboring Iran.

Adam Lucente

By Adam Lucente

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

Hussein FALEH / AFP via Getty Images

Chevron, ConocoPhillips advance Iraq's Hormuz alternatives

Oil agreements have been announced or are expected to be signed on Friday, toward the end of Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Al-Zaidi's visit to the United States.

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi meets with US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office at the White House, Washington, DC, July 14, 2026.

Trump hosts Iraqi PM Zaidi as Iran war intensifies

President Donald Trump emphasized Iraq’s “tremendous oil reserves” and possible deals with US companies.

Latest News

Analysis

On first foreign trip, Iraqi PM Zaidi woos Trump but Iran casts long shadow

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi at a Council of Ministers meeting in Baghdad on July 11, 2026.

Amberin Zaman

By Amberin Zaman

Reporting on geopolitics, minorities, human rights, culture

Analysis

Can a UAE-backed Syria-Iraq corridor become Gulf's next trade route?

An aerial view shows port of the western Syrian port city of Latakia, on Dec. 18, 2024.

In Bristol, reporting on regional business, climate change, AI, tech

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

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (L) and Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu pose before a meeting in Ankara September 12, 2014. Kerry will meet Cavusoglu, as well as Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and President Tayyip Erdogan during his two-day visit to the capital Ankara, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said. REUTERS/Umit Bektas (TURKEY - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR45Z0L

Turkey rows against the tide

Ideological assumptions based on Islamist and Sunni sympathies, as well as a series of bad judgments, leave Turkey with diminished influence in a region where it once hoped to play a leadership role.

U.S. President Barack Obama speaks on the phone with Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah from the Oval Office of the White House in Washington September 10, 2014. President Barack Obama called Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah on Wednesday ahead of an evening speech in which the U.S. leader plans to lay out his strategy for defeating the militant group Islamic State, the White House said. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque (UNITED STATES - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST CONFLICT TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY) - RTR45PEQ

Israel skeptical about US strategy on IS

While the US finds a new interlocutor in Israel's opposition leader, the Israeli security establishment is not reassured by President Barack Obama's latest speech, since it fears that much like Hamas, the Islamic State cannot be defeated by airstrikes alone.

Members of the new Iraqi cabinet attend a parliamentary session to vote on Iraq's new government at the parliament headquarters in Baghdad, Iraq, September 8, 2014. Iraq's parliament approved a new government headed by Haider al-Abadi as prime minister on Monday night, in a bid to rescue Iraq from collapse, with sectarianism and Arab-Kurdish tensions on the rise. Picture taken September 8, 2014. REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani (IRAQ - Tags: CIVIL UNREST POLITICS ELECTIONS) - RTR45I2V

Abadi's new government will face challenges

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced the formation of the new Iraqi government and vowed to answer the demands put forth by political blocs.

Hezbollah supporters wave Lebanese, Syrian, Palestinian and Hezbollah flags as they listen to their leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah addressing his supporters during a rally to mark "Quds (Jerusalem) Day" in Beirut's southern suburbs July 25, 2014. REUTERS/Sharif Karim (LEBANON - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST RELIGION) - RTR4056R

Hezbollah parliamentarian: We will defend Lebanon from IS

In an exclusive interview with Al-Monitor, Hezbollah lawmaker Ali Fayyad said Lebanon was under direct threat from the Islamic State and that Hezbollah stood ready to confront it.

Members of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) ride armoured personnel carriers (APCs) past Israel soldiers in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, before crossing into Syria August 31, 2014. The head of the Fijian army said on Sunday negotiations for the release of 44 soldiers seized by an al Qaeda-linked group on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights were being pursued but he worried there had been no word on where his men are being held. REUTERS/Baz Ratner (CIVIL UNREST POLITICS CONFLIC

US-Iran cooperation on IS makes Israel uneasy

Although Israel is increasingly uneasy about the possibility of US-Iran cooperation in fighting the Islamic State, Israeli security officials say the emergence of a regional Islamic caliphate would be a strategic disaster.

Residents shop for books at Mutanabi Street in Baghdad April 18, 2014. REUTERS/Ahmed Saad (IRAQ - Tags: SOCIETY) - RTR3LSX2

Modern-day 'cultural Sinbad' spreads literature across Iraq

Star Mohsen Ali is unique in his travels across Iraq's provinces to sell and promote books to a generation increasingly thirsty for literature.

Lebanese army soldier Ibrahim Moustafa Shaaban, who was captured by Islamist militants in Arsal, gestures upon his arrival in Al-Mohamara village after his release, in Akkar August 31, 2014. Islamist Nusra Front, a group linked to al Qaeda, on Saturday released four Sunni soldiers and a Sunni policeman whom they captured earlier this month, including Shaaban, a source close to the group said. The circumstances of their release were not immediately clear. REUTERS/Stringer (LEBANON - Tags: CIVIL UNREST TPX IM

New jihadist generation in Lebanon

With the latest security clashes between Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra members and the Lebanese army, it seems that Salafism is shifting its priorities to Lebanon.

U.S. President Barack Obama listens as he hosts a bilateral meeting with Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan during the NATO Summit at the Celtic Manor Resort in Newport, Wales September 5, 2014. REUTERS/Larry Downing (UNITED KINGDOM - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR453P4

Is Turkey the weakest link in anti-IS coalition?

Held back by political weaknesses and ideological constraints, Ankara is likely to be the weakest and most reluctant member of the planned coalition against the Islamic State.

Displaced people from the minority Yazidi sect who fled the violence in the Iraqi town of Sinjar, wait for aid at an abandoned building that they are using as their main residence, outside the city of Dohuk August 25, 2014. REUTERS/Youssef Boudlal (IRAQ - Tags: CIVIL UNREST POLITICS) - RTR43PC3

Iraqi clerics show support for minorities

Iraqi clerics are showing wide support for historically persecuted minorities and working to dismantle the foundations of extremist ideology.

U.S. President Barack Obama speaks as he hosts a bilateral meeting with Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan during the NATO Summit at the Celtic Manor Resort in Newport, Wales September 5, 2014. REUTERS/Larry Downing (UNITED KINGDOM - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR453HP

Turkey faces dilemma in fight against Islamic State

Turkey is not keen to have the Kurds, Shiites and the Damascus regime be bolstered in the fight against the Islamic State.

Peshmerga fighters inspect the remains of a car, bearing an image of the trademark jihadist flag, which belonged to Islamic State (IS) militants after it was targeted by an American air strike in the village of Baqufa, north of Mosul, on August 18,2014. Kurdish peshmerga fighters backed by federal forces and US warplanes pressed a counter-offensive Monday against jihadists after retaking Iraq's largest dam, as the United States and Britain stepped up their military involvement. AFP PHOTO/AHMAD AL-RUBAYE

Islamic State becoming ‘dominant voice’ among global jihadists

The United States intensifies military planning against the Islamic State; Syria’s new Cabinet; Israel faces "highly complex reality" in Syria; IS-linked group threatens more terror, beheadings in the Sinai Peninsula; what Egypt lost in the Al Jazeera trial.

Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki reviews the honour guard upon his arrival in Moscow April 9, 2009. Maliki is to meet Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev during his visit to Russia. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin (RUSSIA POLITICS) - RTXDTLO

Iranian-Saudi agreement on Iraq may be near

While key issues remain, Iran and Saudi Arabia are reportedly close to agreeing on the formation of an Iraqi government, clearing the way to focus on another regional crisis.