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RUDAWIraqi PM defends dinar devaluation amid public anger3HTHE NEW REGIONDrones target Iranian Kurdish opposition group in Erbil province3HSHAFAQTwo-drone attack targets refugee camp in Erbil3HTHE NEW REGIONCoordination Framework slams dinar devaluation, proposes relief measures4HSHAFAQPM Al-Zaidi explains 1,500-dinar dollar rate to parliament5HKURDISTAN24Iraqi PM: Speculators Benefited from Previous Dollar Rate Differential5HSHAFAQSource: Iraqi leaders backed dollar hike before announcement6HIRAQI NEWSSyria to provide alternative route for Iraq’s oil exports6HTHE NEW REGIONIraqi PM Zaidi to appear in parliament over dinar devaluation: MP7HIRAQI NEWSIraq offers $2.80 per barrel discount for November oil sales8HSHAFAQIraq targets zero North Oil flaring by 20278HSHAFAQPKK: All fighters withdrawn from Turkiye9HAPIraq rejects Syrian request to repatriate 4,000 suspected IS detainees, official says9HINAIraq and Kuwait Discuss Developing Security Cooperation and Enhancing the Security of Their Shared Border9H964 MEDIAFederal agency arrests terrorism suspect in Erbil in joint operation with Kurdish forces10H964 MEDIAIraq expands spending as Gulf states cut back, economist says10H
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IRAQ MONITOR · THE BRIEFING

The Daily Digest

SATURDAY, 1 AUGUST 2026 · MORNING EDITION

The Daily Digest

Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi raised military alert nationwide and ordered heightened readiness at Iraqi army and Popular Mobilization Forces bases after joint US-Saudi airstrikes on Iran-backed militia positions in Iraq this week, and two separate sourced reports say he threatened to resign over militia disarmament and amid a rift over his Saudi visit — neither carries an on-the-record statement from him. A Saudi source told Asharq al-Awsat the response struck Iraqi militia capabilities that threatened the kingdom's security; Baghdad says it will not be drawn into the regional conflict and has made air defence modernisation a top priority following the strikes. Al-Monitor reports renewed attacks in Iraq testing that disarmament push, with no faction named as claiming them in the supplied material.

Syria has joined Saudi Arabia and Jordan in warning Iraq over the Iran-backed militias, a widening of Arab-state pressure that Iraqi News frames as the factions putting Baghdad's ties with Washington and the Gulf at risk. Lebanon's Hezbollah condemned the US strike and criticised Saudi Arabia, calling the raids a violation of Iraqi sovereignty in remarks carried by the state news agency. France 24 asks separately why Riyadh joined the US strikes on Tehran's allies in Iraq, while Amwaj weighs what the joint Saudi-US strikes mean for Iraq.

Watan TV, media affiliated with the Badr Organization, posted shortly after midnight that joint checkpoints and heightened security had been installed near the family home of Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi in Baghdad's al-Bunuk area, naming no unit, no ordering authority and no threat. The channel's own text flags the item with the Arabic word for "circulating", marking it as rumour traffic rather than its own reporting. No other collected channel carried it; the desk records no militia claim of responsibility for the positioning and no Iraqi government statement announcing it.

The government has admitted it is struggling to pay salaries on time as Iraqi News reports growing fiscal strain, and the desk's parallel dinar reading slipped to 150,850 IQD per 100 USD in Baghdad and 150,800 in Erbil. The oil minister travelled to Turkey to sign the Ceyhan pipeline agreement, which Bloomberg reports extends the deal by one year and which Iraq's state news agency, cited by Reuters, expects to be signed. Amwaj asks in the same window whether Baghdad and Ankara can shift from crisis management to partnership, and an adviser to the prime minister says water flow into Iraq has doubled after an agreement with Turkey.

An Iraqi official says about 4.5 million Shiite pilgrims have arrived in Iraq for Arbaeen, the first since the war, and France 24 reports Iranian pilgrims flooding across the border for it. Kurdistan24 reports scrutiny of an alleged money-laundering scheme behind Iraq's 'marriage loan' mystery. On the anniversary of the Anfal of the Barzanis, KDP leader Masoud Barzani said it is the Iraqi state's duty to provide material and moral compensation for crimes against the people of Kurdistan, KRG Prime Minister Masrour Barzani said the Kurdish people will never give up their legitimate rights, and Zaidi marked the anniversary while reaffirming his commitment to a federal Iraq.

THINGS TO WATCH
Zaidi's resignation threat put on the record or deniedmedium likelihoodhigh impactBoth Iraqi News and Kurdistan24 rest the threat on unnamed sources and reports, so the prime minister's own office has yet to confirm or deny it.
A faction claims the renewed attacksmedium likelihoodhigh impactAl-Monitor reports renewed attacks testing the disarmament push while no militia has been named as claiming them, leaving attribution the next thing to break.
Ceyhan extension signed in Turkeyhigh likelihoodmedium impactThe oil minister is already travelling to sign, and Bloomberg puts the extension at one year, so the document either appears or slips within days.
August payroll slipsmedium likelihoodhigh impactThe government's own admission that it is struggling to pay salaries on time makes the next payment date the test of the fiscal squeeze.
Official word on the security posture at the PM's family homelow likelihoodmedium impactOnly Badr-affiliated Watan TV carried the deployment claim, flagged in its own text as circulating rumour, with no government statement either way.
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