The August 3, 2026, visit by Nechirvan Barzani, president of Iraq’s Kurdistan Region, to Damascus and his meeting with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa was more than a protocolary stop in the effort to rebuild ties between the two sides.

For the first time since 2003, the Iraqi government has publicly acknowledged a "serious" financial shortfall that disrupted salary payments for public sector employees in July 2026.

Riyadh announced it had launched strikes on targets within Iraqi territory in retaliation for drone attacks on its oil facilities, claiming the drones were launched from Iraq and carried out by Iranian-backed militias.

The Jurf al-Naddaf incident exposed the Iraqi government’s struggle to bring Iran-backed militias under state control despite reported Iranian support for disarmament, raising concerns over state authority and possible foreign intervention.

Just days after Iraqi PM Ali al-Zaidi returned from a 5-day official visit to the U.S. where he met Trump and signed dozens of economic agreements, Ali Akbar Velayati, the Iranian supreme leader's senior adviser on international affairs, denounced the trip as "a badge of shame."