Iraq

14 October 2022; MEMO: Iraq's parliament yesterday elected Kurdish politician Abdul Latif Rashid as president. He then immediately named Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani prime minister-designate, ending a year of deadlock after a national election in October last year, Reuters reports.

BAGHDAD, Oct 12 (NNN-NINA) – The Iraqi parliament decided to hold a session tomorrow, dedicated to electing the next president of the country.

Yesterday, Iraqi parliament Speaker, Mohammed al-Halbousi, announced the decision in a press release, after a regular parliament session, noting that, the agenda for tomorrow’s session would only include the election of the Iraqi president.

According to the power-sharing system in Iraq, after 2003, the presidency should be reserved for the Kurds, the speaker’s post for the Sunnis, and the prime minister’s post for the Shiites.

11 October 2022; MEMO: The Turkish Ambassador to Iraq yesterday met with the President of Iraq's Kurdish Regional Government, Nechirvan Barzani, and discussed Ankara's relations with the Kurdistan region as well as the political situation in Iraq.

Ambassador Ali Riza Guney wrote in a tweet on Twitter that he discussed domestic and foreign political issues with Barzani.

SULIMANIYAH, Iraq (AP) — Growing up under a repressive system, Sharo, a 35-year-old university graduate, never thought she would hear words of open rebellion spoken out loud. Now she herself chants slogans like “Death to the Dictator!” with a fury she didn’t know she had, as she joins protests calling for toppling the country’s rulers.

SULIMANIYAH, Iraq (AP) — Growing up under a repressive system, Sharo, a 35-year-old university graduate, never thought she would hear words of open rebellion spoken out loud. Now she herself chants slogans like “Death to the Dictator!” with a fury she didn’t know she had, as she joins protests calling for toppling the country’s rulers.

BAGHDAD, Oct 8 (NNN-NINA) – A security officer, in Iraq’s Kurdistan region, was killed yesterday, by the explosion of two bombs attached to his car, the Kurdish Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) said in a statement.

The statement named the assassinated officer as Colonel Hawkar Abdullah, a Kurdish security officer, adding that, the attack took place in Erbil, the capital of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.

SULIMANIYAH, Iraq (AP) — Anti-government demonstrations erupted Saturday in several locations across Iran as the most sustained protests in years against a deeply entrenched theocracy entered their fourth week. At least two people were killed.

Marchers chanted anti-government slogans and twirled headscarves in repudiation of coercive religious dress codes. In some areas, merchants shuttered shops in response to a call by activists for a commercial strike or to protect their wares from damage.

7 October 2022; MEMO: The General Federation of Trade Unions (GFTU) in Iraq raised the unemployment issue in the country, with the number of those unemployed growing annually, without any solutions. They stressed that the numbers reached 6 million unemployed individuals, amid calls for the government and the concerned authorities to take responsibility for the issue.

6 October 2022; MEMO: Iraqi Shia cleric Moqtada Al-Sadr today announced the freezing of all his armed factions across Iraq, except the northern province of Saladin.

Saleh Mohamed Al-Iraqi, a leader of the Sadr's movement, said the influential cleric also "banned the use of weapons in all provinces except Saladin and Samarra city."

It was not yet clear why Saladin province was not included in the ban.

BAGHDAD, Sept 29 (NNN-NINA) – A total of 133 people, mostly security members, were wounded yesterday, as the Iraqi parliament reconvened, after nearly two months of suspension, the Iraqi Joint Operations Command said, in a statement.

The media office of the Iraqi Joint Operations Command (JOC), said in the statement that, clashes between protesters and the security forces resulted in the wounding of 122 security members and 11 protesters.