The Daily Digest

Al-Ahad TV (AAH — official) carried Hadba Coalition spokesman Abbas al-Shabaki this evening saying the Prime Minister confirmed that PMF Authority chairman Falih al-Fayyadh had been warned of an attack on PMF headquarters before it happened while Brigade 30 in the Nineveh Plain was not, and that Fayyadh's dismissal is "inevitable and unavoidable." The hardest line is a guest's, not an AAH figure's, and the warning, the attack and the Prime Minister's confirmation rest on the channel's own items, with no answer from Fayyadh, the PMF authority or the prime minister's office, as today's militia digest sets out. The PMF authority said on Sunday morning that its 63rd Brigade repelled an ISIS assault on a commando-battalion position in Tuz Khurmatu, an attack Kurdistan24 places as the disarmament debate intensifies. The president's carve-out exempting the Peshmerga from the weapons process and the office of former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki's denial that he agreed to relinquish the Interior Ministry, together with the intelligence seizure of drones and munitions in Maysan, each turn on who ends up commanding Iraq's armed formations.

On the economy, the Central Bank of Iraq said Iraq has lost more than $30 billion in reserves amid regional tensions — the first figure Baghdad has attached to the cost of the shipping squeeze. Amidi said Iraq is exploring "flexibility" with Iran on Hormuz oil exportation, the same file on which Tehran granted passage to some Iraqi tankers, and Iraqi and Turkish delegations are meeting to finalize the Development Road agreement, a land route that would move goods outside the strait.

Parliament is to take up a strategic pact with France, days after Baghdad reaffirmed its readiness for what it called the "historic" withdrawal of the US-led coalition — a bilateral treaty with Paris is the first named replacement arrangement to reach the chamber. The Coordination Framework, which added Shibl al-Zaydi to its leadership, is bargaining over the security ministries as government formation proceeds.

In Kirkuk, a parliamentary push to freeze the provincial councils has raised concerns in a province where the council carries the local balance between its communities, and a court in the same city fined a Kurdish farmer over an alleged insult to a soldier. Iraq's environmental watchdog identified 500 sources of pollution along the Tigris, Rudaw reported.

THINGS TO WATCH

Parliament sets a reading date for the Iraq-France strategic pactmedium likelihoodmedium impactThe chamber is due to review the pact, so a scheduled reading or a committee referral would show whether it is moving.

The Central Bank of Iraq publishes a reserves figure or breakdown behind the stated lossmedium likelihoodhigh impactThe CBI gave a headline loss of more than $30 billion without detail, and its own reserve reporting would confirm or revise it.

Iraqi and Turkish delegations sign or postpone the Development Road agreementmedium likelihoodmedium impactThe delegations are described as meeting to finalize the agreement, so a signing or an announced delay should be visible.

Baghdad and Tehran name a standing Hormuz passage arrangement beyond the current partial permissionmedium likelihoodhigh impactAmidi described the talks as exploring 'flexibility' while Tehran has cleared only some tankers, so any widening would be announced by one of the two governments.

The provincial-council freeze proposal reaches a vote or is droppedlow likelihoodmedium impactThe push is before parliament and Kirkuk figures are objecting, so the measure either advances to a vote or visibly stalls.