Authorities in Iraq -- a key conduit for the amphetamine-type drug -- regularly announce such operations in which large hauls of captagon are seized, often coming from Syria with which it shares 600-kilometre (370 miles) porous border.

On Sunday, around 300 people demonstrated in the region's second city Sulaimaniyah against the new sentence imposed on Sherwani. NGO Community Peacemaker Teams said Saturday Sherwani did not get a fair trial, but a Kurdistan government body, after reviewing the proceedings, said Sunday that powers of attorney between prisoners were...

The demonstrators marched through the Swiss city in opposition to the 1923 treaty, while organisers urged the international community to reconsider the agreement and its consequences for the Kurdish people. The demonstrators, who came from across Europe, gathered by Lake Geneva before marching uphill to the Palais de Rumine where...

Baghdad, Iraq -- Demonstrators marched in the Iraqi and Iranian capitals Friday to denounce Sweden's permission for protests that desecrate the Quran, as Stockholm withdrew staff from its Baghdad embassy.Hundreds of people gathered in Baghdad's Sadr City after Friday prayers, chanting "Yes, yes to Islam, yes, yes to the Quran", an...

The US-Arab Strategic Dialogue discussed Middle East peace and the Israeli- Palestinian conflict, among other issues. The dialogue concluded successfully and the US and Arab League issued a joint statement on several issues. They statement said that they will counter terrorism and violent extremism in all its forms.

Iraqi riot police fired water cannon to disperse demonstrators away from the embassy while security forces armed with electric batons chased protesters, an AFP photographer on the scene said. Some protesters had raised copies of the Koran into the air, while others held portraits of Mohamed al-Sadr, an important religious...

Even at their center in Chibayish, only a few expanses of the ancient waterways - home to a Marsh Arab culture that goes back millennia - survive, linked by channels that snake through the reeds.

The city of Sharjah accounted for the largest (3,794) share of the transactions.

Designated by the UN as one of the five countries in the world most touched by some effects of climate change, Iraq is experiencing its fourth consecutive summer of drought.

They discussed "reinforcing cooperation between the two countries in various sectors... in addition to joint efforts to fight back against terrorism", a statement from Assad's office said.

Baghdad, Iraq -- Iraq said Sunday it has found a site in a province bordering Saudi Arabia where captagon is produced, a rare discovery in a country that has become a transit route for the illicit drug."Today, and maybe for the first time, a laboratory where captagon is produced was found,"...

Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako, the patriarch of Iraq's Chaldean Catholic Church and architect of Pope Francis' historic visit to the country in 2021, is a key interlocutor between the Iraqi government and its Christian minority. For several months, Sako has been embroiled in a war of words with a Christian...

Bees thrive in temperatures of around 30-35 degrees Celsius, not in searing heat, when the thermometer climbs to 50, said Aliawi, the manager of a private honey producer. The country has been plagued by scorching summers, declining rainfall and frequent sand storms, while upstream dams have reduced the flow of...

Record heat is forecast around the world from the United States, where tens of millions are battling dangerously high temperatures, to Europe and Japan, in the latest example of the threat from global warming. The heatwaves come after EU's climate monitoring service said the world saw its hottest June on...

The Iraqi prime minister said the decision to pay for Iranian gas imports with oil corresponds with the mechanism agreed with the US in order not to violate the sanctions. Gas is crucial for Iraq's electricity generation, but US sanctions on Iranian oil and gas impose restrictions on how Baghdad...

BAGHDAD, IRAQ - A powerful alliance of pro-Iran factions in Iraq called on Sunday on Baghdad to pressure the United States to unlock pending payments to Tehran for crucial gas imports.Iraq, ravaged by decades of conflict and international sanctions, relies on gas imported from its eastern neighbor for a third of...

BAGHDAD, IRAQ -  Secretary General of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) Mohammed Hamel on Friday stressed the importance of Iraq in the oil and gas sector.Iraqi Ministry of oil said in a statement, “Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Affairs and Oil Minister Hayyan Abdul Ghani, met GECF Secretary General...

BAGHDAD, IRAQ -   Iraq joined the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units, the Supreme Judicial Council announced."The efforts made by the competent courts and the Office of Combating Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing resulted in Iraq winning the membership of the Egmont group," said a statement by the Judicial Council...

Mosul, Iraq -- Medical charity Doctors Without Borders announced Wednesday the suspension of "vital" medical activities in two hospitals in the war-scarred city of Mosul, blaming Iraq's bureaucracy of delaying the delivery of supplies."Essential medical activities have been suspended at two health facilities... after stocks of medicines and supplies ran critically...

Baghdad, Iraq-- Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid has emphasized the need for reinforcing partnership with Iran in the fields of trade and energy.The president made the remarks during a meeting with an Iranian delegation headed by deputy foreign minister Bagheri Kani in Baghdad.Rashid accentuated the imperative of reinforcing partnerships in...

The kingdom had already condemned Wednesday's incident in which an Iraqi citizen living in Sweden stomped on the Muslim holy book and set several pages alight. The foreign ministry summoned the ambassador on Sunday to urge Sweden "to stop all actions that directly contradict international efforts seeking to spread the...

Baghdad, Iraq - Saudi Arabia and the UAE have allocated $6 billion to support their operations in Iraq, the Federation of Iraqi Chambers of Commerce (FICC) announced on Sunday. The FICC signed an agreement with the two countries to create business councils. The FICC's president Abdul al-Razzaq al-Zuhairi told the...

Baghdad, Iraq - Iraq's Ministry of Oil has said that the country's crude oil exports reached over 100 million barrels in June, generating revenue of approximately $7.115 billion.The preliminary statistics issued by the Iraqi Oil Marketing Company (SOMO) revealed that the majority of these exports - amounting to almost 99...

BAGHDAD, IRAQ -   Total crude oil exports in June reached over 100 million barrels, the Iraqi government said in a statement.The preliminary statistics issued by the Iraqi Oil Marketing Company (SOMO) revealed that total crude oil exports in June generated revenue of approximately US$7.115 billion.The majority of these exports -...

Tehran, Iran-- Iran has earned revenue to the tune of $54 billion last year from the export of oil, according to US Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimate. OPEC members earned about $888 billion in net oil export revenue last year. That’s what the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates in...

NEW YORK, US- Advisor to the UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs Salem Al Zaabi called on the international community to address the root causes of intolerance and extremism, including countering disinformation on the internet and social media.Al Zaabi, who led the UAE’s delegation to the biennial United Nations Counter-Terrorism Week...

Baghdad, Iraq-- An advisor to Iraq's Prime Minister said the country has effective price monetary policy tools to manage public funds.Mudher Muhammed Salih, the advisor to the Prime Minister for Financial Affairs, emphasized the effectiveness of quantitative and price monetary policy tools in managing public funds and discussed factors contributing...

Iraq has long been transit country for captagon, but officials say it is increasingly becoming a consumer market for the illicit drug. In March, the authorities announced the seizure of three million captagon pills at the Al-Qaim border crossing with Syria.

BAGHDAD, IRAQ - The Finance and Business Center in Iraq is set to become a hub for trading and selling both governmental and private securities, according to the Prime Minister's financial advisor Mudhar Muhammad Salih.In an interview with the Iraqi News Agency (INA), Salih emphasized the center's role in Iraq's...

Sharjah, UAE -- The Federation of UAE Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FCCI) and the International Development Bank (IDB)-UAE have launched Ma'an (Together) initiative to strengthen Emirati and Iraqi private sectors.The two entities aim to achieve this by using Ma'an to encourage private sector businesses to broaden their operations by...

The probe was launched in December by the current government of Prime Minister Mohamed Shia al-Sudani after The Washington Post reported allegations of Committee 29 using torture to extract confessions.

The tablet- whose text is written in cuneiform, the Babylonian alphabet- bears the insignia of Shalmaneser III, the Assyrian king who ruled Nimrod.

London, UK--Volume of trade exchanges between the UK and Iraq has exceeded one billion dollars and imports and exports between the two nations have been significantly growing, a senior British official said on Friday.Lord Tariq Ahmad, the British Minister of State for the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia,...

Baghdad, Iraq - The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and OPEC+ alliance have succeeded in achieving stable oil price that will benefit member states and oil industry, Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Al-Saud said Friday.The Saudi minister made the statement during a celebration hosted in the...

Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani was welcomed by Prime Minister Mohamed Shia al-Sudani at the airport, images broadcast on Iraqi media showed. Relations between the two countries saw a long period of tension under ousted dictator Saddam Hussein, before easing up over the past decade.

Continuing with its crackdown against drug traffickers in the country, Iraq security forces on Tuesday said they had taken into custody a smuggler and seized some 44,000 captagon tablets meant for sale. Iraq has seen a surge in the consumption of the amphetamine-like drug in recent years as it grapples...

The new bill earmarked 12.7 percent of the budget to the oil-rich autonomous Kurdistan region of northern Iraq. It follows long-standing tensions with Kurdish leaders who had previously denounced amendments relating to oil in the budget, resulting in repeated delays to the vote.

Three Iraqi soldiers were killed and four others wounded in a pre-dawn attack in the country's north blamed on the Islamic State group, a military official said. The assailants used automatic weapons in the attack on their barracks, about 25 kilometers west of the city of Kirkuk, the official said...

The strategic partnerships between the two sides seek to focus on peace, security, stability, integration, and economic prosperity in the Middle East.

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia -- Riyadh and Washington urged Western governments Thursday to repatriate citizens who joined the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, where thousands still languish in prisons or camps.Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said it was "disheartening and absolutely unacceptable" that some wealthy countries had not brought...

The visit by Faisal Mekdad comes weeks after the Arab League agreed to end Syria's suspension from the 22-member bloc, bringing the regime of President Bashar al-Assad back into the regional fold after years of civil war. Iraq remained an ally to Damascus throughout the wider Arab boycott, never severing...

Iranian Navy Commander Rear Admiral Shahram Irani has declared the formation of a new naval coalition. This alliance, encompassing regional powers like Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, and Iraq, aims to enhance maritime security and underlines the increasing recognition of the need for regional synergy in establishing security.

Syriac-speaking communities in Iraq and Syria have declined over the years, owing to decades of conflict driving many to seek homes in safer countries.

Iraq's supreme court ruled as unconstitutional the extended mandate of autonomous Kurdistan's parliament, rendering invalid votes taken by the chamber since last year. It is the latest source of tension between Iraq's federal authorities and Kurdistan whose leaders had denounced amendments in the federal budget affecting oil sales from the...

Sharjah, UAE--With an aim to bolster the country's capital markets, the Sharjah-based company Dana Gas has revealed that it will raise its foreign ownership limit to 100 percent.The company said that it had obtained the approval of the regulatory authorities to raise the percentage of foreign ownership from 49 percent...

Baghdad, Iraq--Iraq is looking to deepen cooperation with Iran in the transport sector and facilitate the movement of pilgrims between the two countries. The issue was discussed in a meeting in Baghdad between the Iranian and Iraqi ministers focusing on the ways to expand cooperation between the two countries.The meeting occurred...

In a country where political agreements are concluded after endless negotiations between political parties, the objection of the Kurds is delaying a parliamentary vote on the budget. The changes in budget text says the Kurdish region must first deliver 400,000 barrels of oil daily to the federal authorities, along with...

Iraq looks to have renewable energies cover a third of its electricity needs by 2030 and has signed several contracts for solar plants. Its huge oil reserves are enough to produce crude at current rates for another century, but as the world works to wean itself off hydrocarbons, the country...

Iraq presented an ambitious plan to turn itself into a regional transportation hub by developing its road and rail infrastructure, linking Europe with the Gulf and other Middle East countries. Once completed, the US$17 billion project known as the "Route of Development" would stretch 1,200 kilometers from Turkey to the...

Muteb Alshathri, acting CEO PIF, told the Saudi-Iraqi Coordination Council in the kingdom that the Saudi-Iraqi Investment Company will invest in mining, real estate, infrastructure, mining, agriculture and financial services. In October last year, the fund announced it will establish five companies aimed at investing in Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Oman...