The Daily Digest
Iraq has declared a four-day holiday from 30 September to 3 October for Sovereignty Day, as it prepares to mark the expected end of the coalition military mission and handover of remaining facilities on 30 September. The prime minister’s office said official working hours would be suspended at institutions covered by the decision. Lt. Gen. Abdul Amir al-Shamari, director of the commander-in-chief’s office, said Victoria Base had been vacated of American personnel and would become a diplomatic-mission reception centre. He said no foreign combat forces or military bases would remain after 30 September, but also put the evacuation of Turkey’s Bashiqa base at up to 60 days. Baghdad and Ankara had agreed to a gradual Bashiqa handover without publishing a completion date; al-Shamari’s new timetable is more specific, but does not establish that the transfer is complete.
Baghdad is seeking U.S. exemptions for some Iraqi airports after three airports suspended Iranian flights on Friday. The government says it wants services restored for treatment, education, religious visits and other civilian travel, rather than announcing that the restrictions have been reversed. Sarsang Mahmoud, Mahan Air’s Iraq and Kurdistan Region director, said calls to his company indicated more than 1,000 Iraqi and Kurdistan Region citizens were stranded in Tehran, including more than 300 from the Kurdistan Region; he said many were ill or recovering from surgery and could not travel by road. Iran’s pilgrimage authority said land crossings remained open and travellers could convert air bookings to overland trips with a refund of the fare difference. Iran’s science minister said travel obstacles also affected more than 50,000 Iraqis enrolled at Iranian universities.
The flight restrictions have also brought demands for parliamentary action and calls for protests. Badr secretary-general Hadi al-Amiri demanded reversal, while Falih al-Khazali (KSS — MP and Muntasirun bloc head) gave Baghdad 48 hours to lift the restrictions and proposed gathering signatures to summon the prime minister and aviation and transport officials. First Deputy Speaker Adnan Faihan said parliament would hold an extraordinary session if the decision was not cancelled. Al-Nujaba TV (Nujaba — official) publicized a sit-in at Najaf airport’s entrance for Monday at 5 p.m.; a separate KSS-linked notice named the city’s 20th Revolution overpasses. The sit-in is scheduled, not a gathering that has taken place. The positions differ over reversal and exemptions: Ansar Allah al-Awfiya’s leader rejected asking Washington for an exemption, while an AAH political-office member supported seeking one.
The Finance Ministry has completed the 2027 federal budget draft and sent it to the Ministerial Council for the Economy for review. It said the draft introduces programme-and-performance budgeting first in electricity, Diwaniyah and Salahaddin. The referral advances a bill still disputed between Baghdad and Erbil: a Kurdistan Regional Government finance source said the Region wants the “actual expenditure” condition removed from the calculation of its share. A separate report put the federal draft’s proposed regional share at 12.67 percent, while the KRG had stated a 14.14 percent demand. Kurdish officials also disputed a reported federal request for 500,000 barrels of oil a day, saying the Region could not supply that amount. The draft has reached ministerial review, not agreement on the Region’s allocation.
A government spokesperson said Iraq and the United States had reached an understanding to continue cash dollar shipments, with another shipment expected in the coming days. Iraqi officials said some shipments resumed in July after a months-long suspension; Washington had halted a shipment of about $500 million in April. Baghdad’s al-Kifah market rate stood at IQD 155,250 per $100, down from 156,800 in the previous session. The rate remains below the IQD 160,250 per $100 recorded on 19 September. The understanding concerns continued shipments; the next delivery remains expected rather than received.
Separately, gasoline trucks from Syria’s Baniyas port have begun entering Iraq through the al-Waleed crossing, al-Rutba district administrator Emad al-Rishawi said. He said around 3,000 loads were planned and traffic through the crossing was proceeding normally. The Syrian Petroleum Company said it had dispatched two convoys, of 10 and 55 tanker trucks. The arrivals follow the Oil Ministry’s disclosure that Iraq needed at least five million litres of imported petrol a day to cover the gap between production and consumption. Trucks reaching Iraq advance the supply effort beyond the earlier arrival at Baniyas, but do not establish that fuel has reached filling stations.