Key Takeaways:
- POLITICS: KDP Says Appointment Of New Sinjar Mayor Violated The Constitution – On July 2, the provincial council of Ninewa province met and voted to appoint 15 new mayors for districts and subdistricts across the province. Controversially, the list of new appointees includes a new mayor for the disputed Sinjar district, a post that’s been vacant since October 2017, when federal Iraqi forces took control of Sinjar following the September 2017 Kurdistan independence referendum. The new mayor, Sedo Khairi, was reportedly selected from a slate of five Yazidi candidates presented to the Ninewa council. The appointment appears to violate provisions of the December 2020 Sinjar Agreement between the federal government and the KRG, which calls for joint appointment of a new administration for Sinjar. The KDP denounced the appointments as illegal and suspended its participation in the Ninewa council meetings. In other developments, on July 3, KDP leader Masoud Barzani arrived in Baghdad on his first visit in six years to meet with PM Sudani, President Rashid, and other political and militia leaders. Speaking after their talks, Sudani said he and Barzani have gone a long way in building trust between the Baghdad government and the KRG. Meanwhile, Barzani said that Sudani was “leading the state with [good] intentions that have brought everyone to this comfortable situation,” adding that their latest talks have led to a “real breakthrough” in relations, without offering specifics. On July 8, PM Sudani spoke on the phone with the newly elected president of Iran, Masoud Pezeshkian, and invited him to visit Baghdad. more…
- SECURITY: Iraq Arrests PKK Members Over Alleged Role In 2022 Bombings, Fires, And Plots To Attack Baghdad; Fighting Between PKK and Turkey Displaces Duhok Villagers – On July 1, Iraq’s Interior Ministry said it arrested three “dangerous criminals” working for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which Iraq declared a banned organization in March 2024. The individuals were responsible for “fires and bombings” in Erbil, Duhok and Kirkuk and were planning further operations in Baghdad and against the Kirkuk-Ceyhan oil export pipeline, a ministry spokesman told reporters. On July 9, Rudaw reported that at least seven mostly Christian villages near the Turkish border in Duhok Province were evacuated as a result of ongoing fighting between the Turkish military and PKK militants. In other developments, between June 30 – July 7, the explosions of four IEDs and one grenade in Dhi-Qar, Sulaymaniyah, Duhok, and Anbar killed three people, including two children, and wounded at least two other individuals. On July 6, the Ishraqat Kanoon bloc in parliament said that gunmen from an “outlaw” armed group attacked the home of lawmaker Nasir al-Waili in al-Dolaie neighborhood of north Baghdad. The attack, which involved small and medium firearms, did not cause casualties. On July 9, the “Islamic Resistance in Iraq,” a front group for Iran-backed Iraqi militias, claimed that it conducted a new attack against an unspecified “vital target” in the Israeli city of Haifa using explosive drones. more…
- HUMANITARIAN: KRG Says Baghdad’s Camp Closure Plan Will Be Reconsidered As IDPs Leave Last Remaining Camp In Sulaymaniyah – On July 8, the KRG Interior Minister said that the Iraqi government’s plan to close remaining IDP camps in the Kurdistan region by the end of July was being reconsidered. Minister Reber Ahmed revealed that a joint committee has been formed between the regional and federal governments and the UN “to review the decision,” which said was initially made “without consulting the Kurdistan government, the United Nations, and the displaced people themselves.” Ahmed stressed that the KRG supports the voluntary return of IDPs to their home districts but argued that those districts lacked necessary services and protection. This comes as Iraq’s Ministry for Migration and the Displaced announced the closure of Camp Ashti, the last remaining IDP camp in Sulaymaniyah province, after its last remaining residents returned to their districts of origin in Sinjar, Balad, and Dujail. In other developments, on June 27, Human Rights Watch said that federal Iraq and KRG authorities have “arbitrarily detained and deported” Syrian nationals back to Syria even though they had proper residency and work permits or were registered as asylum seekers with the UNHCR. The report said this policy “breaches Iraq’s obligations as a party to the UN Convention Against Torture (CAT) and under the customary international law principle of nonrefoulment.” more…
- ECONOMY & CLIMATE: Iran Gas Transit Deal Allows Iraq To Buy Turkmenistan Gas; Wheat Harvest Nears Six Million Tons – On July 3, officials from Iran and Turkmenistan signed a natural gas transit agreement that will see Turkmenistan deliver up to 10 billion cubic meters of gas per year to Iran to be forwarded to Iraq as the final destination. Under the deal, Iran will build a new 77 mile long pipeline to allow greater gas flows from Turkmenistan to Iran. In March, Iraq’s Electricity Minister said that Iraq could start receiving natural gas from Turkmenistan by “next summer” pending negotiations with Tehran to use Iran’s pipeline network. On July 11, Iraq’s state-owned Grain Trading Company said that farmers had delivered nearly six million tons of wheat since the beginning of the current harvest season. The harvest is significantly higher than last year’s yield of 5.2 million tons, and almost on par with 2020, when Iraq produced 6.2 million tons of wheat. In other developments, on July 2, Iraq’s Electricity Minister said that power generation reached a new peak of 27,320 megawatts, up 3,000 megawatts from last year. On July 3, Jordanian trade officials said that Jordanian exports to Iraq grew by more than 50% during the first four months of 2024 compared to the same period of last year. On July 3, Iraq’s Planning Ministry signed a memorandum of understanding with the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) to provide technical support for Iraq’s planned national population census, scheduled for November 20, 2024. more…
For more background on most of the institutions, key actors, political parties, and locations mentioned in our takeaways or in the stories that follow, see the ISHM Reference Guide.