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Iraq

July 5, 2026

Baghdad 9:49 pm

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

Analysis

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

On June 26, Emirati and Syrian officials discussed plans for a logistics corridor connecting Syrian ports to Gulf markets via Iraq.

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

AHMAD AL-RUBAYE / AFP via Getty Images

Here's what to know about Iraq's corruption as Zaidi launches crackdown

Watchdogs and financial institutions regard Iraq as a significantly corrupt country as the new prime minister works to recover public funds.

aqi security personnel patrol in a vehicle along a street in Baghdad on June 28, 2026.

Analysis

Iraqi PM’s anti-corruption drive comes as US pressure mounts on Iran-backed militias

Iraq’s new prime minister has launched a sweeping anti-corruption campaign ahead of key talks in Washington, but analysts say the real test will be whether it reaches Iraq’s most powerful Iran-backed actors.

Amberin Zaman

By Amberin Zaman

Reporting on geopolitics, minorities, human rights, culture

Latest News

Explainer

After UAE and Qatar, could Iraq be next to leave OPEC?

A worker at a market for fuel oil and automotive fuel on March 17, 2026, in Erbil, Iraq.

Iraq taps Krikor Der-Hagopian as first Armenian Christian ambassador to US

Krikor Der-Hagopian at the 9th Sulaimani Forum, in Sulaimaniyah, Iraq, on April 16, 2025.

Exclusive

Barrack heads to Iraq as US presses Baghdad on Iran-backed militias

Tom Barrack

Amberin Zaman

By Amberin Zaman

Reporting on geopolitics, minorities, human rights, culture

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

UK returning 4,000-year-old artifact to Iraq discovered in online auction

The Sumerian relic is thought to be among thousands of artifacts stolen from Iraq in the last century.

Smoke billows following a reported Russian airstrike on the western countryside of the mostly rebel-held Syrian province of Idlib, on September 20, 2020. (Photo by Mohammed AL-RIFAI / AFP) (Photo by MOHAMMED AL-RIFAI/AFP via Getty Images)

Intel: HTS claims credit for death of Iraqi IS leader's brother

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham has claimed responsibility for killing the brother of Hajj Taysir, an Iraqi Islamic State emir killed by the United States earlier this year.

Iraq's Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi, mask-clad due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, looks on during a joint press conference with the French president in Baghdad on September 2, 2020. - French President Emmanuel Macron landed in Baghdad on his first official trip to Iraq, where he hopes to help the country reassert its "sovereignty" after years of conflict. (Photo by GONZALO FUENTES / POOL / AFP) (Photo by GONZALO FUENTES/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Significant challenges face Kadhimi’s economic reform project

The economic reform project that Mustafa al-Kadhimi's government is supposed to propose soon faces great challenges related to the need to get parliament’s approval before taking any step.

A member of an Iraqi Shiite paramilitary group helps a fellow protesters holding a placard denouncing the United States climb on the outer wall of the US embassy in Baghdad's Green Zone during an angry demonstration on December 31, 2019 to denounce weekend US air strikes that killed Iran-backed fighters in Iraq. Arabic graffiti reads: "Assaib Ahl al-Haq" -- a pro-Iran Iraqi Shiite group whose leaders were recently hit with US sanctions. - It was the first time in years protesters have been able to reach the

US shakes up Iraqi factions with reported warning on militias

The Trump administration has warned Iraqi President Barham Salih that it could close its US Embassy in Baghdad if the militias' attacks against its bases and convoys continue.

Kadhimi follows through on promises to reform Iraq's security sector

Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi's recent appointments and reforms are likely to face resistance from some political blocs and armed groups who feel they are losing power.

Iraqi tourists walk past the Sherwana Citadel in the Kurdish city of Kalar, 126 kms south of Sulaimaniya, on September 27, 2015. AFP PHOTO / SAFIN HAMED (Photo credit should read SAFIN HAMED/AFP via Getty Images)

Iran’s shadow looms large over southeastern Iraqi Kurdistan

The recent bust of a major fraud and smuggling network at one of Iraqi Kurdistan's border crossings has drawn attention to the power wielded by Iran in that area, both on the local economy and on local water supplies due to dams built in recent years.

382543 02: Iraqi president Saddam Hussein raises his rifle in a salute and fires it November 20, 2000 durring Grand Day of Quds festivities in Baghdad. Grand Day of Quds celebrates Iraq''s commitment to liberating Jerusalem from Israeli rule. (Photo by Newsmakers

Iraq's Baath Party archive location unknown

The United States last month shipped a historic archive of Baath regime documents to Iraq, but the government is keeping mum about its location and fate, given the political sensitivity of the documents.

Employees display rifles for sale at a gun shop in the Iraqi capital Baghdad on September 22, 2020. (Photo by AHMAD AL-RUBAYE / AFP) (Photo by AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP via Getty Images)

Iraq cracks down on illegal arms flow to militias, armed groups

Mustafa al-Kadhimi’s government has launched a campaign in southern provinces to get illegal arms out of the hands of militias and tribal groups.

OPEC+ pressures Iraq, UAE to further cut oil production

Saudi Arabia and other OPEC members held a virtual meeting with Russia and other allied oil producers today to discuss the continuing low price of oil amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

An Iraqi anti-government demonstrator walks past posters of Iraqi polititians and a US flag in Tahrir Square in the capital Baghdad, on August 1, 2020. - Iraq will hold its next parliamentary elections nearly a year early, the premier announced yesterday, as he seeks to make good on promises he offered when he came to power.
Protests began in October, with thousands taking to the streets of Baghdad and across the south.
Demonstrators demanded that the political system be dismantled, pointing to endemic corr

Iraqi government steps up fight against corruption

The arrest of six senior officials on corruption charges shows that serious steps are taken in the fight against corruption, amid calls that the government speeds up its reform program.

US gives Iraqi Kurdistan peshmerga $250 million worth of Humvees, ammo

Washington's ambassador announced the move as some US troops prepare to leave Iraq.

Iraq, counter-IS coalition kill, capture Islamic State figures

The US-led anti-IS coalition provided helicopter transport for the Iraqi raid in al-Rutba.