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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
Iraq has cut just over 3.6 million barrels per day (bpd) in crude production as a result of the war in Iran, leaving about 1 million bpd flowing to domestic refineries and another 250,000 bpd for export via the northern pipeline system to Turkey. The reduction can easily be reversed if the Strait of Hormuz reopens, Iraqi oil officials said, but in the meantime the oil sector faces major challenges just to maintain even the reduced levels of production. Read Iraq Oil Report's full story, including its monthly survey of production, exports, and revenues.
Exports via the northern pipeline system to Turkey's port of Ceyhan are capped by infrastructure constraints and security threats. Iraq is pumping about 250,000 bpd of crude for export following a political breakthrough, providing the country with a relatively small but vital route to global markets while its primary Basra Gulf outlets remain closed due to war. Despite the urgency of maximizing oil revenues at a time of fiscal crisis, Iraq's northern exports appear unlikely to rise much higher in the coming weeks. Read Iraq Oil Report's full story on the factors constraining Iraq's export potential.
Energy & Economy
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Iran is allowing ships from allied countries, including Iraq, to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, while warning that ships connected to the U.S.-Israeli attacks will remain under threat. In a statement on March 25, Araghchi named Iraq, China, Russia, India, and Pakistan among the countries whose ships Iran considers eligible to pass, 964 Media reports. Separately, the operator of the Omega Trader, managed by Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, disputed reports that it had turned off its tracker and crossed the Strait carrying Iraqi crude, Bloomberg reports. The tanker allegedly hauled 2 million barrels to Mumbai. It remains unclear whether the Iranian messaging on a selective opening of shipping lanes will result in enough tanker volumes to provide meaningful relief for Iraqi exports.
Anbar province officials said their border crossings are ready to transit up to 200,000 bpd of oil, 964 Media reports. Officials said between 100,000 and 200,000 barrels per day by tanker truck could move through the al-Waleed border crossing with Syria, the Trebil crossing with Jordan, and the Arar crossing with Saudi Arabia. The province presented the plan as a way to ease part of the export crisis, and also used the moment to call for reviving larger strategic pipeline routes, including the Basra-Haditha-Aqaba and Kirkuk-Baniyas pipelines, though such projects would likely take years to complete and will not help in the current crisis. It also remains unclear to what extent those trucking routes will be used for crude oil: the Iraqi Oil Ministry has indicated it is likely to prioritize the export trucking of heavy fuel oil (HFO) over crude, in order to avoid problematic storage gluts that would otherwise threaten to reduce refinery activity and the availability of fuel.
Iraq's Cabinet has approved emergency gasoline imports, according to a statement by Iraq's Oil Ministry. Iraq's oil marketing company, SOMO, is now authorized to import additional gasoline to compensate for supply shortages in March, having been granted an exception from petroleum product import-export regulations and government contracting rules.
Security
U.S. and Iranian attacks continued across Iraq this week. Some of the most notable incidents include:
- At least seven Iraqi soldiers were killed and 13 wounded by an apparent American air strike on March 25 on a military site that appeared to have been collocated with Iran-backed paramilitaries of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces in western Anbar province, Reuters reports. The Ministry of Defense said a military clinic and a nearby engineering unit were hit, and that rescue teams were still searching the site for possible additional casualties. The ministry condemned the strike as a violation of international law and said it reserved the right to respond through legal channels.
- A drone attack hit a Peshmerga forces base, Rudaw reports. The KRG Ministry of Peshmerga blamed Iraqi paramilitary groups aligned with Iran.
- PMF positions were hit on March 23 in East Anbar and North and East Tigris, Iraqi News reports, with the PMF saying the strikes caused material damage but no casualties.
- Airstrikes hit a PMF medical unit in Jurf al-Sakhar in Babil, Iraqi News reports, causing one injury and damaging the site. Three other strikes targeted Kataib Hezbollah positions south of Baghdad.
- A drone strike near Iraq’s intelligence headquarters in Baghdad killed an officer, Reuters reports. The Iraqi National Intelligence Service blamed “outlaw groups” for the attack, which Iraqi News reported was a warning to intelligence chief Hamid al-Shatri not to collaborate with the U.S.
- Senior Iraqi paramilitary commanders were killed in a Habbaniyah air strike, according to several news outlets. Shafaq News reported that Saad Duwai al-Baiji, identified as a commander of PMF operations in Anbar, was killed along with other officers in a strike in the al-Hadba area inside Habbaniyah base. Roj News later reported initial claims that the dead also included Wathiq al-Fartousi, a PMF intelligence director, and Haider al-Mamouri, a PMF security director. Al Mashhad reported at least 15 PMF fighters were killed and 30 wounded.
Iraq's Ministerial Council for National Security said attacks on the PMF and other official security formations can be met under the right of self-defense, Alsumaria reports. The council said attacks carried out by warplanes or drones against official security headquarters, including the PMF, should be confronted by available means under the principle of the right to respond and self-defense. The statement also said the PMF is one pillar of Iraq's national security system, and ordered legal pursuit of those involved in attacks on security institutions, civilians, and diplomatic missions. It said the Foreign Ministry would prepare complaints to the UN Security Council while summoning both the U.S. charge d'affaires and the Iranian ambassador over attacks on PMF sites in Anbar and Peshmerga positions in Erbil.
Maj. Gen. Saad Maan says the NATO mission was not targeted and its withdrawal was precautionary, 964 Media reports. Maan, a military spokesperson, said NATO's announcement of a withdrawal from its headquarters was a temporary, planned security move while the war continues, and not a result of being targeted in the fighting. He said the international coalition had fully withdrawn from Iraq at the end of last September under the Higher Military Commission agreement, and described the NATO mission as a non-combat force focused on advice, training, and courses.
Politics
The Coordination Framework said it will delay a decision on its prime minister nominee as the regional war overtook the already stalled political process. Shafaq News reports that the alliance is waiting for more clarity about the outcome of the war before deciding on a candidate, and that the conflict has complicated the political timetable. Meanwhile, figures close to former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said at least 125 MPs signed pledges rejecting a second term for Sudani, Al-Mada reports, which the group says is sufficient to prevent the two-thirds majority required for constitutional government formation steps.
Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani says dismantling Iraqi armed factions will become easier after September 2026. In an interview with Italy's Corriere della Sera, translated by 964 Media, Sudani said the task would become easier once the international coalition mission ends that month and foreign combat forces are no longer present in Iraq. He said some factions still view foreign troops as an occupation, while also claiming Iraqi security forces had foiled many attacks and that political efforts were underway to curb the groups' activity and funding. Sudani said he hoped U.S. military trainers would return, while stressing that current NATO personnel in Iraq serve only as advisers and trainers, not in combat roles. He also repeated that Iraq does not want to become an arena for others’ conflicts, condemned attacks on PMF forces, and said Baghdad would not join any military operation in the Gulf to protect oil tankers. He also said both the U.S. and Iran are violating Iraq's sovereignty, Shafaq News reports.
A Sunni political bloc urged Sudani to act against "uncontrolled armed groups," 964 Media reports. The National Political Council, a Sunni political bloc, said armed groups are a direct threat to national security and argued that a recent threat issued by an armed group against Sunni and Kurdish officers and personnel in the Iraqi National Intelligence Service represented a clear assault on the state and its institutions.
Gulf states have backed Kuwait in a dispute over maritime borders with Iraq. The AP reports that the dispute flared again after Iraq submitted a map and geographic coordinates to the United Nations defining what it says are Iraqi areas in Gulf waters, including areas Kuwait says infringe on its sovereignty. Kuwait objected to the Iraqi submission, and Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Saudi Arabia publicly backed Kuwait's position. The dispute touches both the Fasht al-Qaid and Fasht al-Aij shoals and links back to a longer-running dispute over the Khor Abdullah waterway.
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