The Daily Digest

Prime Minister al-Zaidi has ordered a draft law confining weapons to the state, a step Washington has publicly backed after Quds Force commander Esmail Qaani's Baghdad talks on the future of the armed groups. Within the same day, three Popular Mobilization members were shot dead at a Saladin base, Iraqi authorities said they suspect a drone destroyed a tank ammunition stockpile in what the paper calls a "silent battle" with the militias, and an IED wounded three soldiers in Kirkuk; no party has claimed any of the three and authorities have named no attacker. An adviser to the prime minister said Iraq must not be an arena for external conflicts, and the government stood up a Desert Operations Command near the Saudi border to prevent attacks.

Al-Janoub TV, Harakat al-Jihad wal-Bina's official channel, ran a Baghdad-datelined report on what it called repeated attacks on the Popular Mobilization Forces, carrying parliamentary calls for a "deterrence equation" protecting Iraqi sovereignty. It names no attacker, location or incident date, no other tracked channel carried it, and no party has claimed the attacks it describes; the militia digest beside this one has the channel-level detail.

On the economy, the Cabinet approved a 2026–2029 government program spanning 14 sectors and referred it to parliament, an agenda the government had unveiled the previous evening. A parliamentary committee put reserves at 109 trillion dinars, enough to cover salaries for about ten months.

Still on the economy, US crude imports from Iraq fell to zero, the EIA reported, and auto sales fell 28.6% in the first half of the year, Iraqi News reported, as non-oil weakness clouded the outlook despite 10% money growth and delivery firms moved toward collapse under heavy fees.

In the north, gas sales from Khor Mor to Baghdad are testing who controls Kurdistan's gas, and the Kurdistan Region's interior minister said oil output remains low amid security threats. MPs pressed Baghdad over Kurdistan's gasoline crisis, a KDP MP in Baghdad asked for 140,000 barrels of crude a day for the Region, and the KRG said equal cost treatment could cut petrol to 450 dinars.

Still in the north, Jordan hosted Iraq, Syria and the Kurdistan Region for talks on border security, with the Peshmerga seated at the high-level military meeting in Amman. The head of the Border Ports Authority separately proposed a meeting to unify procedures for the movement of goods between Iraq, Syria and Turkey.

THINGS TO WATCH

A weapons-confinement bill text reaches Cabinet or parliamentmedium likelihoodhigh impactThe prime minister has ordered a draft prepared but no text exists yet, so the settling event is a named bill arriving at Cabinet or the parliamentary agenda.

Iraqi authorities name a party behind the suspected drone strike on the tank ammunition stockpilemedium likelihoodhigh impactOfficials described a 'silent battle' with the militias but attributed the destroyed stockpile to no named actor, and no group claimed it.

Parliament takes up the 2026–2029 government programmedium likelihoodmedium impactThe Cabinet has referred the 14-sector program to parliament, so a reading, committee referral or vote should be recorded.

Baghdad answers the KDP request for 140,000 barrels a day for Kurdistanmedium likelihoodmedium impactA KDP MP put a specific daily crude allocation to Baghdad amid the Region's gasoline crisis, and an oil ministry decision would settle it either way.

A named follow-up session of the Amman border-security formatlow likelihoodmedium impactJordan hosted Iraq, Syria and the Kurdistan Region with the Peshmerga present, and a scheduled next meeting would show whether the format is durable.