With budgets already stretched thin, Iraq’s budget is being taxed even more by its policy of flaring natural gas while paying high prices to import natural gas from Iran. The process of flaring natural gas—a byproduct of oil production—is controversial on climate grounds. Flaring is the process of burning this natural gas, and is employed when it doesn’t make economic or practical sense for oil companies to capture the natural gas and sell it. But the spokesman for the Ministry…

JOURNALISTS and civil-society groups in Iraqi Kurdistan detailed the human-rights abuses committed by regional government forces during the recent protests in a meeting with the United Nations on Monday. People jailed during anti-government demonstrations that spread across the region earlier this month raised their concerns with the UN representative to Iraq, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert. The meeting follows protests and demands for the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) to resign, amid accusations of nepotism and corruption levelled at the duopoly that rules the…

The Iraqi parliament on Saturday organized a ceremony to honor Qasem Soleimani, the top Iranian commander who was killed in a US drone strike on January 3 in Baghdad. The parliament also paid tribute to Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, an Iraqi Shiite militia leader who was killed in the same US strike. A photo exhibition of the two men was held as part of the commemoration ceremony. Reasons behind the National al-Sanad bloc, which is close to Iran, organizing the ceremony…

Baghdad (CNN)A rocket attack on Baghdad's diplomatic Green Zone Sunday night was "a terrorist act" that undermines Iraq's international reputation, the country's president says. Eight rockets were fired at the heavily fortified area, with at least one Iraqi soldier injured when a rocket landed near an Iraqi security checkpoint, according to a statement from the Iraqi military.   The military said most of the rockets hit the Qadisiya residential neighborhood near the US Embassy, damaging several buildings and cars.  …

Iraq is moving forward with plans to devalue its currency by nearly 23 percent in response to a dire financial crisis — an extreme policy measure that will not come close to balancing a 2021 budget projected to authorize record spending. According to a provisional draft of the 2021 budget, which was widely leaked on Thursday, the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI) will move its long-standing currency peg from 1,182 Iraqi dinars per dollar to 1,450 dinars per dollar. Iraq…

Large posters and banners of slain Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani were hoisted inside the halls of the Iraqi parliament ahead of preparations to mark the one-year-anniversary of his assassination by US forces, according to a video being shared online. According to parliamentary sources, Iraqi MPs plan to hold a memorial to mark the one-year anniversary of Soleimani’s death alongside Iraqi paramilitary commander Abu Mahdi al-Mohandes who were both killed on Jan. 3, 2020. The sources added that official invitations were sent…

BAGHDAD – A leaked draft of Iraq’s state budget sent Iraqis into a panic on Thursday as it confirmed the government’s intention to devalue the national currency, the Iraqi dinar, and cut salaries to cope with the impact of a severe economic crisis. Discussions about devaluaing the Iraqi dinar, which has been pegged to the dollar for decades, have been going on for weeks as the government worked to finalise the 2021 budget. The draft law, which has to first…

BAGHDAD/ERBIL - The street value of Iraq's currency is dropping, as markets anticipate the likelihood the dinar will soon be devalued in response to a dire economic crisis. Money exchangers in Iraq on Monday were charging 1,300 Iraqi dinars for each U.S. dollar, compared to the Central Bank of Iraq's (CBI) official rate of 1,182 dinars per dollar — the widest spread between market rates and the bank's official "window" rate since December 2016, according to an Iraq Oil Report…

Iraq's foreign exchange reserves decreased 12.5 per cent during the first quarter of 2020 to 68.5 trillion dinars ($57.5 billion) down from 78.25 trillion dinars ($65.75 billion) in the last quarter of 2019, the Iraqi Central Organisation for Statistics (COS) said. COS added in a statement that the country's internal public debt has increased from 38.33 trillion dinars ($32.21 billion) in Q4 of 2019 to 43.45 trillion dinars ($36.51 billion) in Q1 2020. The decline in foreign exchange reserves coincided…

Anti-government protesters in Iraq’s southern Dhi Qar province ended on Sunday a year of popular demonstrations that had swept the city of Nasiriyah. The development took place amid reports that government authorities and groups affiliated to the Sadrist movement, of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, had threatened prominent activists. The demonstrators had also likely cleared the protests sites in order to “catch their breath” and seriously consider the possibility of fielding candidates in next year’s June parliamentary elections. The candidates would be…