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KURDISTAN24Maliki Office Denies Reports of Agreement to Relinquish Iraq’s Interior Ministry2HRUDAWIraqi forces seize drones, munitions in southern province as arms crackdown persists3HKURDISTAN24Shibl al-Zaydi Joins Iraq’s Shiite Coordination Framework Leadership3HRUDAWErbil trades 172 tons of gold, silver worth $885M in 2026: Trading firm8HKURDISTAN24Federal Judge Strikes Down Trump's Immigrant Visa Ban, Iraq Among 75 Affected Countries8H964 MEDIAPeshmerga are not part of the weapons process, Iraqi president says9HRUDAWNearly 20,000 Iraqi electricity ministry employees illiterate: Education official12HTHE NEW REGIONIran has allowed some Iraqi tankers through Strait of Hormuz: State media13HKURDISTAN24Iraqi Intelligence Seizes Drones, Weapons in Maysan13HKURDISTAN24Iraqi Parliament to Review Iraq-France Strategic Pact13H964 MEDIAIraq currency exchange rates – August 22, 202613HREUTERSIran grants permission for a number of Iraqi oil tankers to pass through Hormuz14HKURDISTAN24Iran Allows Iraqi Oil Tankers Through Hormuz After Baghdad Request15HKURDISTAN24Iraqi Parliament Speaker Sets End-September Timeline for State Arms Collection17HAMWAJIraq’s air defense future in disarray amid stalled South Korean deal23HASHARQ AL-AWSATGhalibaf Urges Baghdad to Break Economic Dependence on Washington1D
Iraq Monitorعين على العراقPrimary-source intelligence
THE BRIEFING · A PERMANENT EDITION

Saturday, 22 August 2026

EVENING EDITION

The Daily Digest

Asaib Ahl al-Haq's own television channel spent Saturday afternoon building a case for removing the man who runs the Popular Mobilization Forces. Between 13:47 and 14:13, Al-Ahad TV (AAH — official) ran four segments in under half an hour on PMF chairman Falih al-Fayadh's failure to appear at a parliamentary questioning session, with political science professor Ammar al-Bahadli telling the channel Fayadh can be removed under legal and constitutional procedures and legal expert Sa'd al-Bakhati saying the rules bind anyone regardless of office. A second run of four segments carried on-screen text saying Fayadh refused to form a fact-finding committee and that warning of the Saudi-American strikes on PMF sites reached him three hours in advance without units being told to evacuate.

Sadiqoun MP Rajaa al-Harbi said on the same channel that Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi had told MPs the attack was reported before it happened and that her bloc is moving to vote the PMF Authority law as fast as possible — a law press reports the same day said remains stalled over a dispute about the chairman's tenure, and the removal argument came from the channel's outside guests, not from any named AAH office-holder.

Military intelligence seized drones and weapons in Maysan on 22 August, the day after the government spokesperson ruled out any foreign mediation on the weapons talks and the speaker fixed his end-September timeline for state arms collection. The president has since put a boundary on that exercise, saying the Peshmerga are not part of the weapons process, which carves Erbil's forces out of a drive running to the same date as the coalition withdrawal — a date that falls with Iraq's air defence procurement still in disarray over a stalled South Korean deal, Amwaj reported. Parliament will separately review the Iraq-France strategic pact, Kurdistan24 reported.

On the economy, Iranian state media said Tehran has let some Iraqi tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, the concession Baghdad asked for during the Iranian speaker's visit, and Reuters put the grant at a number of Iraqi oil tankers — a batch, not a standing right. Al-Zaidi is seeking alternative oil export routes while guaranteeing salaries, Iraqi and Saudi officials have discussed energy security and oil market stability, and Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf urged Baghdad to break its economic dependence on Washington. The route Baghdad has is the one Tehran controls.

In the north, the Kirkuk governor disclosed new energy talks with Turkey while pledging a smooth transfer of power in the province, and a British energy major aims to raise Kirkuk's oil and gas output; the KRG has filed a 2027 budget proposal prioritising salaries and entitlements. An education official says nearly 20,000 electricity ministry employees are illiterate, Rudaw reported on 22 August — a measure of the workforce the ministry running the country's power supply employs.

THINGS TO WATCH
Baghdad names a specific alternative oil export routemedium likelihoodhigh impactAl-Zaidi said he is seeking corridors beyond Hormuz while guaranteeing salaries, so naming a pipeline or terminal would show whether the search has a candidate.
A second batch of Iraqi tankers cleared, or turned back, at Hormuzmedium likelihoodmedium impactIranian state media described the passage as permission for some tankers, leaving the next convoy as the test of whether this is standing policy or a single gesture.
The KRG or Peshmerga ministry states a position on the arms-process carve-outmedium likelihoodhigh impactThe Iraqi president said the Peshmerga are not part of the weapons process, and Erbil has not said in this material whether it accepts that framing before end-September.
Another announced weapons seizure by Iraqi intelligence before end-Septemberhigh likelihoodmedium impactThe Maysan drone and weapons seizure is the enforcement action on record under the speaker's collection timeline, and whether more follow shows if the deadline is being worked.
Parliament holds a session on the Iraq-France strategic pactmedium likelihoodmedium impactKurdistan24 reported parliament will review the pact, which would put a Western security relationship on the floor as the coalition withdrawal date approaches.

The Militia Digest

AAH's own channel spent the afternoon building a case for removing the PMF chairman. Between 13:47 and 14:13, Al-Ahad TV (AAH — official) ran four segments in under half an hour on Falih al-Fayadh's failure to appear at a parliamentary questioning session, captioning it as an absence that "opens the file of responsibility"; a political science professor told the channel Fayadh can be removed under legal and constitutional procedures, and a legal expert said the rules apply regardless of position. A second run of four segments in 41 minutes went further, carrying on-screen text saying the head of the Popular Mobilization Authority refused to form a fact-finding committee and that warning of the Saudi-American strikes on PMF sites reached him three hours in advance without units being told to evacuate. Sadiqoun MP Rajaa al-Harbi said on the same channel that the prime minister had told MPs the attack was reported before it happened, that those who failed to pass the warning on will be held to account, and that Sadiqoun is moving to vote the PMF Authority law as fast as possible.

The removal argument comes entirely from guests and captions on AAH's screen — no named AAH office-holder has said it, the PMF has not responded, and the strike and the warning have gone unreported outside the militia channels. This advances yesterday evening's broadcast, in which a legal researcher on the same channel said Fayadh could face the military court over the summons.

The legislative demand widened past AAH. Al-Ahad TV carried Al-Asas Coalition leader Adnan al-Jabri adding his bloc's voice to Sadiqoun's push for a vote on the PMF service and retirement law, saying parliament needs accurate information on the attack on PMF headquarters and that those negligent in failing to report it must be held accountable; the same channel carried al-Salihi saying Sadiqoun's efforts had produced a date for sending the law forward. Minutes later First Deputy Speaker Adnan Fihhan, speaking at the eighth Baghdad Dialogue Conference, named the clause extending the PMF chairman's tenure as the single point of disagreement blocking the law and said the PMF contains electoral brigades and regiments in violation of the constitution. Press reports the same day put the stall down to the same dispute over the chairman's tenure.

On the weapons file, Kataib Hezbollah's channel answered the president's morning handover demand in terms AAH's did not use. Within twenty-five minutes, Al-Ittijah TV (KH — official) published Sabah al-Ardawi, head of the KH representation in Babil, saying the Islamic Resistance will not submit to a Zionist-American conspiracy to strip its "weapons of dignity", and al-Sarraj saying any decision to restrict weapons must cover the militias in the Kurdistan Region and not the resistance alone. The two factions' channels described the same policy in the same hour with opposite valences — AAH's as organisation under the commander-in-chief with no concession on state control, KH's as a conspiracy. Separately, Al-Kornet al-Kata'ibi (KSS — affiliated) relayed the head of the Hikma movement saying any surrender of weapons would be to the PMF Commission, adding no comment and naming no timetable or disarming party; the Iraqi president, for his part, said the Peshmerga are not part of the weapons process.

Jurf al-Nasr, which AAH framed this morning as a soft flank of Baghdad awaiting a decisive government decision, drew a deployment claim by evening. Unit 10,000 (KH — affiliated) posted imagery captioned as PMF al-Jazira Operations Command special forces deployed in the sector, under the heading "here are the heroes of the fray, the lions of battle"; the still shows two armed men in black tactical gear amid tall reeds, and neither the unit nor the place can be identified from the picture. The post names no operation, no adversary and no timetable, and the caption assigns the men to the PMF's al-Jazira command rather than to KH. Within the same hour the two networks ran community framing on the same town: Al-Ittijah TV reported Kirkuk clerics and sheikhs rejecting the return of "takfiri incubators", and Al-Ahad TV posted twice that Muthanna tribes reject "sectarian statements" about the town, neither naming who said what is being rebutted.

In the militia space, KSS's spokesman took a public quarrel to his own channel. iNEWS (KSS — affiliated) published a point-by-point message from Kadhim al-Fartousi to the writer Ghalib al-Shabandar, saying he had warned the Coordination Framework against confrontations in which only Shia blood falls, that its members understood him as intended, and that his elder brother and superior did not threaten the prime minister. The denial answers a circulating claim that nobody has quoted, and no second voice appears anywhere in the exchange. On the same evening AAH's channel published the phrase "Shia-Shia war" in order to deny it, headlining that state leaders are reassured there will be none after 30 September on the strength of a confirmation by first deputy speaker Adnan Faihan, without naming any party that was expected to fight.

Half an hour before that, the same channel carried Faihan naming Dr Laith al-Khazali as "our nominee" for deputy prime minister and telling objectors to stay away from political grandstanding, saying disagreements over completing the cabinet persist and that names for the vacant ministries will soon reach parliament. The post does not say which bloc "our" refers to, and no competing nomination has been put forward. Three factions' outlets also announced Shibl al-Zaidi's entry into the Coordination Framework leadership: Al-Ahad TV ran it first and alone said the signing was unanimous, with Al-Kornet al-Kata'ibi and Al-Ghadeer TV (Badr Organization — official) carrying a shorter identical wording about fifty minutes later that named him head of the Services Alliance and omitted the unanimity.

THINGS TO WATCH
A named AAH office-holder, not a guest, calls for Fayadh's removalmedium likelihoodhigh impactThe removal argument has so far come only from outside guests and captions on Al-Ahad TV, with no AAH leader putting his name to it.
Fayadh or the PMF answers the three-hour-warning allegationmedium likelihoodhigh impactAAH's channel alleged the Authority chief had three hours' notice of the strikes and refused a fact-finding committee, and the PMF has said nothing.
Parliament schedules a vote on the PMF Authority lawmedium likelihoodhigh impactSadiqoun says its efforts produced a date for sending the law forward and Fihhan named the chairman's tenure clause as the only obstacle.
Kataib Hezbollah states a position in its secretary-general's name on arms restrictionmedium likelihoodhigh impactKH's refusal so far runs through a Babil representation head and a second figure on Al-Ittijah TV, not the leadership, against an end-September collection timeline.
Laith al-Khazali's nomination reaches parliament or is publicly contestedmedium likelihoodmedium impactFaihan named him as "our nominee" and warned objectors off, and said names for vacant ministries would soon go to parliament.
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