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Welcome to This Week in Iraq, your one-stop source for all of the most important Iraq news, curated by the editors of Iraq Oil Report. To sign up and receive this free newsletter in your inbox every week click here.
Top Stories
As the U.S.-Israel war on Iran enters its second month, the spillover conflict in Iraq now appears to be turning into a parallel war that is likely to reshape the country's investment climate for years to come. The conflict is escalating — and one dramatic sign is an apparent expansion of the targets both sides are choosing to strike. Iran-backed armed groups are hitting energy infrastructure in both Iraqi Kurdistan and southern Iraq, threatening the economic lifeblood of the country; and the U.S. has been targeting not only armed groups that are operating outside the Iraqi military chain of command but also paramilitary groups that are formally integrated into the country's armed forces. The biggest loser in this parallel war appears to be the Iraqi state. The government is simply too weak to defend Iraq's sovereignty against both U.S. and Iranian forces determined to treat the country as a secondary theater in their broader war, leaving a vacuum of authority that is being filled by armed groups. A wide variety of Iraqi security and political officials say the risks to Iraq's stability could last beyond the fighting in Iran. Read the full story on Iraq Oil Report.
Energy & Economy
Iraq has started exporting fuel oil by tanker truck to Syria in an effort to debottleneck the oil sector that has been severely curtailed since the U.S.-Israel-Iran war began more than a month ago. Attaqa reports the deliveries began from Baiji through the al-Waleed/al-Tanf border crossing at 10,000 to 15,000 bpd. Reuters reports that Iraq's oil marketing company, SOMO, awarded contracts for 650,000 metric tons of HFO per month, for the next two months. Before the war, SOMO was exporting around 200,000 bpd of HFO via the Basra Gulf, according to a SOMO official interviewed by Iraq Oil Report. With those export outlets shut down, surplus HFO is accumulating in storage facilities across the country, which creates a risk that Iraqi refineries might have to reduce production unless new demand sources can be found.
Crude oil exports via Syria could also start up soon, after SOMO signed a contract for 50,000 bpd of trucking, according to Director General Ali Nizar al-Shatari, speaking in a televised interview posted to SOMO's Facebook page. The trucks will pick up Basra Medium crude "from the loading stations at [Iraq's] southern ports," Shatari said, and bring them to Syria's Mediterranean port at Baniyas for sale to "customers in Europe." Shatari said SOMO is looking to establish an office at Baniyas and would aim to "develop a long-term plan to open this route and others for Iraqi crude, not only for crisis times but also to continue in the future."
Iraq is receiving proposals to jumpstart stalled pipeline projects that were originally envisioned years ago to provide strategic redundancies and expanded capacity for crude exports. Al-Mada reports that Hong Kong-based Heritage Funds LPF is offering to finance and execute oil and gas pipeline projects under an engineering, procurement, and construction model tied to oil-swap contracts. It said the proposal included one route from Basra to Haditha and then to Aqaba in Jordan or Latakia in Syria, and a second route from Basra to the Turkish border. Erem Business reports that Deputy Oil Minister Bassem Mohammed Khudair has outlined plans to raise flows through the Ceyhan route to about 650,000 barrels per day by combining federal and Kurdistan crude, while also studying a new line to Baniyas, as part of a longer-term effort to reduce Iraq’s vulnerability when Hormuz is disrupted. Such volumes are not achievable in the short term, however, due to a lack of strategic pipeline capacity that prevents Iraq from moving large volumes of crude from its oil heartland in the south to export infrastructure in the north.
Iraq’s Transport Ministry said the country continues to receive ships, with several vessels docking at Iraqi ports this month carrying wheat, sugar, and corn, the Iraqi News Agency reports. The General Company for Maritime Transport has continued to provide services to ships arriving in Iraq from the UAE, as well as ships carrying wheat, sugar, and corn to Umm Qasr South and Abu Flus.
Politics
Pressure is building within the Shia Coordination Framework to move quickly toward electing a president and forming a “full-powers government,” even as deep disagreement persists over whether Mohammed Shia al-Sudani should secure a second term, Al-Mada reports. A faction within the Coordination Framework, a coalition of Shia Islamist parties, sees a fully empowered government as the quickest way to contain the crises stemming from the Iran war, and is reportedly pushing for a parliamentary session to elect a president and then move toward reappointing Sudani. Those efforts are opposed by a faction of the Coordination Framework still backing former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
The Iraqi Parliament has scheduled a legislative session on April 11 to elect a new president, after Speaker Haibat al-Halbousi met bloc leaders to discuss ending the political impasse, Iraqi News reports. Previously scheduled sessions have failed to achieve quorum due to ongoing disagreements between Iraqi Kurdistan's two main political parties over who should be the nominee, as well as discord within the Coordination Framework over their candidate for the premiership.
Washington is reassessing its support for Sudani as the war with Iran escalates, raising new questions about his chances of securing a second term, Shafaq News reports. The U.S. reportedly wants Sudani to taking stronger action against Iran-backed armed groups, and objected to his March 24 statement in which he advocated for Iraqi forces to defend themselves against attacks.
Muqtada al-Sadr called on Iraqis to hold protests in all provinces on April 4 against what he described as “U.S.-Israeli aggression,” Shafaq News reports. In a statement on Monday, Sadr urged the protests to be peaceful and organized, with unified chants and only the Iraqi flag raised.
Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein warned that armed groups operating outside state control are damaging Iraq’s international standing, provoking retaliation, and risking a renewed spiral of internal conflict. In one report by Iraqi News, Hussein said attacks launched from inside Iraq had cast doubt on the government’s ability to control armed actors and protect diplomatic missions, and said repeated attacks on international interests and infrastructure were harming Iraq’s reputation.
Iraq’s political and judicial establishment showed public friction with Iran-backed factions as chief judge Faiq Zaidan warned that armed groups acting on war decisions outside the state could push Iraq toward internal conflict, prompting backlash from militia-linked figures and messaging that coincided with a parliamentary push to move the stalled presidential election forward, 964 Media reports. Zaidan argued that declaring war is a sovereign constitutional power reserved for the state and warned that armed factions acting independently on war and peace decisions threaten sovereignty, the legal order, and social stability, including the risk of internal conflict. In another 964 Media report, Kataib Hezbollah security official Abu Mujahid al-Aasaf rejected Zaidan’s argument, and said defending land and holy sites did not require the approval of those aligned with Iraq’s enemies, and warned against calls to disarm the factions.
Security
Iraq’s Interior Ministry said security forces arrested one suspect in the kidnapping of an American journalist in central Baghdad and were pursuing the remaining perpetrators, Al-Mada reports. The ministry said forces launched an immediate intelligence-led pursuit after the abduction, surrounded a vehicle used by the kidnappers, and arrested one suspect after the car overturned during an escape attempt. The kidnapped journalist was identified as Shelly Kittleson, who was taken near the Palestine Hotel on Saadoun Street.
Iraq’s Cabinet approved the purchase of air-defense systems as the government reviewed the regional war’s impact and pushed to raise military readiness, 964 Media reports.
The Region
Turkey has warned it could intervene militarily in northern Iraq if Kurdish militants become involved in ground fighting inside Iran, Asharq Al-Awsat reports. The article said that Ankara has warned against efforts to push fighers from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the group’s Iranian affiliate, PJAK, into ground operations in western Iran. The warning reflects wider Turkish concern over how the regional war could galvanize Kurdish militant networks with nodes in Turkey.
Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei thanked the people of Iraq and Iraq’s religious leadership for supporting Iran “in the face of aggression,” Reuters reports, citing Iranian state media.
Analysis & Commentary
Iraq cannot delay in building an Iraq-Jordan-Egypt pipeline, argues economist Ahmed Tabaqchali, as Iraq’s current over-reliance on Basra Gulf exports leaves it dangerously exposed to the Strait of Hormuz. Writing for the Atlantic Council, Tabaqchali argues that the effective closure of Hormuz has exposed Iraq’s long-standing failure to build credible alternative export routes and makes a westward pipeline strategy more urgent.
Kataib Hezbollah has borne the heaviest toll from the U.S.-Israeli air campaign against armed groups in Iraq, The National Context reports. An analysis of strikes through late March 2026 showed a clear hierarchy of targeting, with KH and its network taking the largest share of attacks, followed by factions along the Syrian border, and then a broader pattern of strikes on paramilitary formations in disputed territories.
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