Iraq

SULIMANIYAH, Iraq (AP) — When Mahsa Amini was detained in the Iranian capital for wearing her veil too loosely, her family sprang into action, calling relatives, friends, contacts — anyone who could help.

One of her cousins, Irfan Mortezai, living in neighboring Iraq, got the message from her distraught brother.

“She’s been arrested by the morality police,” the brother wrote to him from the family’s hometown of Saqqez in mainly Kurdish western Iran.

29 Sep 2022; MEMO: Iran's Revolutionary Guards said yesterday they fired missiles and drones at militant targets in the Kurdish region of neighbouring northern Iraq, where authorities said 13 people were killed, Reuters reported.

The strikes were reported after Iranian authorities accused armed Iranian Kurdish dissidents of involvement in unrest now shaking Iran, especially in the northwest where most of the country's population of over ten million Kurds live.

BAGHDAD (AP) — Supporters of Iraq’s influential Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr attempted to storm Baghdad’s Green Zone government area Wednesday as the Iraqi parliament held session on the resignation of its speaker.

Associated Press journalists saw those supporting al-Sadr waving flags as security forces gathered around them. They managed to break through a security barrier on a bridge leading to the heavily fortified zone but got no farther.

27 Sep 2022; MEMO: Iraqi Parliament Speaker, Mohammed Al-Halbousi, yesterday submitted his resignation.

Parliamentarians are due to vote on whether or not to accept Al-Halbousi's resignation tomorrow, details issued by the parliament's media office showed.

Tomorrow's session will also include a vote on electing the first deputy parliament speaker to replace Hakim Al-Zamili of the Sadrist movement, who resigned along with all members of his bloc in mid-June.

BAGHDAD, Sept 24 (NNN-NINA) – Iraqi Foreign Minister, Fuad Hussein, said yesterday that, his government is interested in developing relations with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, at all levels, according to a statement by the ministry.

Hussein made the remarks, when meeting with GCC Secretary-General, Nayef bin Falah Al-Hajraf, on the sidelines of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly, where “the two sides discussed ways to enhance cooperation,” the ministry said in the statement.

BAGHDAD, Sept 19 (NNN-NINA) – Seven Daesh militants and a member of government-backed paramilitary Hashd Shaabi forces were killed yesterday, in a clash in Iraq’s northern province of Nineveh, the media office of Hashd Shaabi forces said, in a statement.

Hashd Shaabi fighters clashed with the Daesh militants, hiding in a tunnel, in the al-Hatra desert, south-west of Mosul, capital of Nineveh Province, according to the statement.

09 Sep 2022; MEMO: The leader of Iraq's Sadrist Movement, Muqtada Al-Sadr, stressed yesterday that the return of his Movement's MPs to the House of Representatives is "absolutely forbidden, under any pretext".

05 Sep 2022; MEMO: Iraq's rival political groups held a second round of national dialogue on Monday in an effort to resolve the country's months-long political crisis Anadolu News Agency reports.

The office of Prime Minister, Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, reported the news, without providing any further details.

The first round of the dialogue was held on 17 August, but was boycotted by influential Shia cleric, Moqtada Al-Sadr.

It was not yet clear whether Monday's session was attended by the firebrand leader.

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq’s caretaker prime minister convened a second round of talks Monday with Iraqi leaders aimed at resolving the ongoing political crisis between rival Shiite blocs, but the representatives of an influential cleric failed once again to attend the gathering.

The seat reserved for Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s party was empty as Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi met with al-Sadr’s chief political rivals in the Iran-backed camp, as well as President Barham Salih and U.N. representative Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert.

BAGHDAD, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi Parliament Speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi on Sunday called on the parliamentary blocs to hold new rounds of dialogue to agree on various issues, including early elections.

"The agenda of the upcoming national dialogue rounds must include several issues that must be agreed upon, including setting a date for early parliamentary and provincial council elections no later than the end of 2023," al-Halbousi said in a statement.