The Daily Digest

Parliament's speaker set an end-September timeline for the state's collection of weapons, Kurdistan24 reported on 21 August, the first parliamentary date attached to the handover deadline. Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi said the political forces are in "complete agreement" on militia disarmament and will send the Popular Mobilization law to parliament after a months-long standoff, Rudaw reported. The government spokesperson said there is no foreign mediation on the weapons talks, a denial issued while Iran's parliament speaker was still in the country. No faction has said it accepts the end-September date.

Al-Ahad TV (AAH — official) spent Friday moving from calls to condemn PMF chairman Faleh al-Fayyad over his failure to appear before parliament to calls to punish him in absentia, one guest urging sanctions up to dismissal and a legal expert arguing that an in-absentia questioning and referral to the courts would be constitutional. Every position belongs to a guest: AAH has put no official name to the charge, and no Badr, Kataib Hezbollah or Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada channel has carried the Fayyad questioning at all, as today's militia digest sets out.

Erbil's interior minister said the Kurdistan Region is not part of regional conflicts and is seeking clarification from Iran over the drone attack on the office of KRG Prime Minister Masrour Barzani, which no party has claimed and which neither Baghdad nor Erbil has attributed. The request was made while Iran's parliament speaker was in Karbala hailing the shared history of the two countries after visiting the graves of allied Iraqi fighters, a trip that sources told Asharq al-Awsat fell short of all its objectives. Tehran's one announced deliverable was the removal of banking barriers with Iraq.

On the economy, al-Zaidi guaranteed salaries and said Baghdad is seeking alternative oil export routes, while his government set out an ambition to raise output to 8-10 million barrels a day within six years and discussed energy security and market stability with Saudi Arabia. In the north, the Kurdistan Regional Government sent Baghdad a 2027 budget proposal prioritising salaries and entitlements, Rudaw reported, days after the renewed tripartite export deal spurred field restarts in the Region.

On the security file, Iraqi forces arrested 50 suspected drug traffickers and seized a manufacturing lab, Rudaw reported. A pro-Kurdish party expects a PKK-related law to be implemented within weeks, it told Rudaw on 20 August.

THINGS TO WATCH

Iran's foreign ministry answers Erbil's request for clarification on the drone attackmedium likelihoodhigh impactThe KRG interior minister has publicly asked Tehran to explain the attacks, so an Iranian ministry or embassy reply is a checkable occurrence.

The probe supervised by the Iraqi prime minister names a party behind the strike on Barzani's officelow likelihoodhigh impactA spokesperson says the investigation runs under the Iraqi PM's direct supervision, and no party has claimed the attack.

A named faction publicly accepts or rejects the speaker's end-September arms-collection datemedium likelihoodhigh impactThe speaker set the timeline unilaterally in parliament and no armed faction has responded to it.

Baghdad responds to the KRG's salary-first 2027 budget proposalmedium likelihoodmedium impactThe KRG has filed a proposal prioritising salaries and entitlements, and a federal finance ministry response or agreed figure would settle it.

The PKK-related law is voted or publishedmedium likelihoodmedium impactA pro-Kurdish party says implementation is expected within weeks, a claim a legislative text would confirm or refute.