Iraq

BAGHDAD (AP) — Hundreds of protesters attempted to storm Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone, which houses foreign embassies and the seat of Iraq’s government, early Saturday following reports an ultranationalist group burned a copy of the Quran in front of the Iraqi Embassy in Copenhagen.

Security forces pushed back protesters, who blocked the Jumhuriya bridge leading to the Green Zone, preventing them from reaching the Danish Embassy.

BAGHDAD, Jul 21 (NNN-NINA) – The Iraqi government yesterday asked the Swedish ambassador to leave Iraq and recall its charge d’affaires from Sweden, in protest against the burning of the Quran and the Iraqi flag in Sweden.

A statement by the government said, Prime Minister, Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani issued the directives “in response to the repeated permission of the Swedish government, to burn the Quran, insult Islamic sanctities, and burn the Iraqi flag.”

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq’s prime minister ordered the expulsion of the Swedish ambassador from Iraq and the withdrawal of the Iraqi charge d’affaires from Sweden on Thursday as a man desecrated of a copy of the Quran in Stockholm.

The diplomatic blowup came hours after protesters angered by the planned burning of a copy of the Quran stormed the Swedish Embassy in Baghdad, breaking into the compound and lighting a small fire.

20 July 2023; MEMO: Hundreds of Iraqi protesters stormed the Swedish embassy in the capital, Baghdad, at dawn today, and set it on fire.

Supporters of Muqtada Al-Sadr had called for a protest in front of the embassy to coincide with Salwan Momika's plan to burn the Quran in Sweden once again.

Momika threatened to burn the Qur'an, along with the Iraqi flag, in front of the Iraqi Embassy in Sweden.

BASRA, Iraq July 16 (Reuters) - The demolition on Friday of a 300-year-old minaret of a mosque in Iraq's southern city of Basra to make way for road expansion has enraged locals, religious and cultural authorities who condemned it as a further erosion of Iraq's cultural heritage.

Built in 1727, the 11-metre (36 ft) Siraji minaret and its mosque were toppled by a bulldozer at dawn on Friday morning, its brown mud-brick spire with turquoise ornaments disappearing in a cloud of dust.

BAGHDAD, Jul 15 (NNN-NINA) – Iraqi Prime Minister, Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani, held a phone conversation with Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, yesterday, on bilateral ties and road construction, linking the two countries.

A statement issued by his office said in the phone talk, al-Sudani stressed “Iraq’s keenness to build regional and international partnerships, that contribute to the national economic development of the brotherly and friendly countries.”

14 July 2023; MEMO: Former Iraqi Prime Minister, Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, was "fully aware" of Israeli-Russian Elizabeth Tsurkov's frequent visits to Iraq and had warned both Washington and Moscow that her Israeli citizenship and "work" is "a danger to her", Israeli media reported.

According to the Israeli media, Tsurkov visited Iraq on numerous occasions from 2020 until she disappeared in March.

13 July 2023; MEMO: Iraq will start paying for its Iranian gas imports with oil, to circumvent the complicated mechanism agreed with Washington in order not to contravene US sanctions, the Prime Minister said on Tuesday, Reuters reports.

According to the report, Iraq cannot directly hand over cash to Iran, but payments must be held in a bank account and be used by Tehran to fund imports of food and medicines.

BAGHDAD, Jul 10 (NNN-NINA) – The Iraqi Ministry of Electricity said, Iraq lost 5,000 megawatts of electricity because of a shortage of gas supply from Iran.

The loss of nearly 5,000 megawatts caused by the decline in gas supplies from Iran, and the gap of 10,000 megawatts because of insufficient national gas production, have negatively affected the electricity supply to citizens, the ministry spokesman, Ahmed Musa, said.

BAGHDAD, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Iraq exported about 100.59 million barrels of crude oil in June, generating 7.1 billion U.S. dollars in revenue, the country's Oil Ministry announced Saturday.

The average price for Iraqi crude oil in June was 71.1 dollars per barrel, the ministry said in a statement, citing statistics from the State Organization for Marketing of Oil, an Iraqi company.