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Iraq Halts Gas Imports from Iran

A view of the Baiji gas power station in Iraq. (Government media)
A view of the Baiji gas power station in Iraq. (Government media)
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Iraq Halts Gas Imports from Iran

A view of the Baiji gas power station in Iraq. (Government media)
A view of the Baiji gas power station in Iraq. (Government media)

The US State Department welcomed Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani's commitment to respecting sanctions imposed on Iran.

Iraq will end on Saturday gas imports from Iran in line with conditions imposed by US President Donald Trump's administration.

The government will now be faced with the task of finding alternative sources of gas that is needed to fuel power plants. Experts are predicting a very difficult summer as temperatures soar and with little power to relieve the heat.

Iraq used to import 50 million cubic meters of gas from Iran per day to fuel its power plants.

"We have nothing to announce with regard to the current electricity waiver that expires on the (March) eighth...We are reviewing all existing sanctions waivers that provide Iran any degree of economic or financial relief," State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said on Thursday.

"We are urging the Iraqi government to eliminate its dependence on Iranian sources of energy as soon as possible, and welcome the Iraqi Prime Minister's commitment to achieve energy independence."

The US is reviewing all existing sanctions waivers that provide Iran any degree of economic relief, and urging the Iraqi government to eliminate its dependence on Iranian sources of energy as soon as possible, Bruce said.

The US is using the waiver review in part to increase pressure on Baghdad to allow Kurdish crude oil exports via Türkiye, according to two sources familiar with the matter, reported Reuters.

Iraq's negotiations with the semi-autonomous Kurdish region over the oil export resumption have been fraught so far.

The US government has said it wants to isolate Iran from the global economy and eliminate its oil export revenues in order to slow Iran's development of a nuclear weapon.

Trump's restoration of the "maximum pressure" campaign on Iran was one of his first acts after returning to office in late January.

Alternatives

Finding alternatives for Iranian gas appears to be bleak so far. Member of the oil and gas parliamentary committee Ali Saadoun al-Lamy admitted that Iraq does not have alternatives at the moment.

Several power plants rely primarily on gas from Iran, he told the media. Cutting the supply or abandoning it suddenly will lead to a drop in electricity generation in Baghdad and other regions.

Turning to local gas will take two or more years to achieve, while importing gas and electricity from other countries besides Iran may take a month or more, he explained.

Iraq produces 27,000 megawatts of electricity. The majority of its power plants run on gas and production occasionally drops to 17,000 megawatts.

The figures are below its demand for 40,000 megawatts to meet demand.

Speculation is rife in Iraq about the new US administration's policy towards the country and the possibility that sanctions on Iran will impact it as Baghdad gears up for parliamentary elections this year.

Political sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the coming months will witness a "settling of political scores" as American pressure mounts on Iran-aligned forces in the country.

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Arab World

Israeli Strike in Gaza Kills Three Including Child

Children react as people take cover from a reported drone strike while they were queuing to receive meals from a charity kitchen in the Jabalia camp for Palestinian refugees in the northern Gaza Strip on October 24, 2026. (AFP)
Children react as people take cover from a reported drone strike while they were queuing to receive meals from a charity kitchen in the Jabalia camp for Palestinian refugees in the northern Gaza Strip on October 24, 2026. (AFP)
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Israeli Strike in Gaza Kills Three Including Child

Children react as people take cover from a reported drone strike while they were queuing to receive meals from a charity kitchen in the Jabalia camp for Palestinian refugees in the northern Gaza Strip on October 24, 2026. (AFP)
Children react as people take cover from a reported drone strike while they were queuing to receive meals from a charity kitchen in the Jabalia camp for Palestinian refugees in the northern Gaza Strip on October 24, 2026. (AFP)

Three Palestinians, including a young girl, were killed Monday in an Israeli airstrike on a camp for displaced people in the southern Gaza Strip, medical sources and first responders said.

Civil defense spokesman Mahmoud Bassal said a total of 11 people had been killed and 50 wounded by Israeli fire and airstrikes in Gaza over the past 24 hours.

"We transported three martyrs, including a child, following an Israeli airstrike targeting a camp for displaced people in the Al-Mawasi area, west of Khan Younis," Bassal told AFP.

Nasser Hospital in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis confirmed the three deaths.

"Their bodies were torn apart by direct hits from shrapnel from the Israeli missile," the hospital said, adding that several wounded people, including a child and a woman, had also come in for treatment.

The hospital identified the deceased as Hossam al-Zamli, Tamer Abu Sneima, and Jouri al-Soufi, a young girl. The Gaza education ministry gave her age as seven.

Israel's military told AFP it was looking into reports of the strike.

A security source in Gaza told AFP that "several tanks and military vehicles, accompanied by a military bulldozer, advanced on Monday morning into the area west of the Yellow Line in the eastern part of Deir al-Balah", in central Gaza.

After a US-brokered ceasefire took hold in Gaza in October 2025, the so-called Yellow Line was established to divide the areas under Israeli control -- more than 60 percent of the territory -- from those under Hamas control.

The military advance Monday coincided with "heavy gunfire by the occupation forces towards the eastern and northern areas" of Deir al-Balah, home to hundreds of displaced families, the source added.

Since the ceasefire began last year, more than 1,500 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the territory's health ministry.

The war began on October 7, 2023, following an unprecedented attack by Hamas on southern Israel that killed 1,221 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Israel responded with a massive military campaign that has destroyed much of Gaza and killed more than 74,500 people, according to the territory's health ministry, which operates under Hamas and whose figures are considered accurate by the United Nations.

Arab World

Mass Outages in Sudan After RSF Drones Hit Five Power Stations

People walk through a vegetable market in El Obeid, as drought and heat linked to El Nino threaten harvests, livestock, and water supplies in Sudan's war-affected Kordofan region, El Obeid, North Kordofan, Sudan, September 13, 2026. (Reuters)
People walk through a vegetable market in El Obeid, as drought and heat linked to El Nino threaten harvests, livestock, and water supplies in Sudan's war-affected Kordofan region, El Obeid, North Kordofan, Sudan, September 13, 2026. (Reuters)
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Mass Outages in Sudan After RSF Drones Hit Five Power Stations

People walk through a vegetable market in El Obeid, as drought and heat linked to El Nino threaten harvests, livestock, and water supplies in Sudan's war-affected Kordofan region, El Obeid, North Kordofan, Sudan, September 13, 2026. (Reuters)
People walk through a vegetable market in El Obeid, as drought and heat linked to El Nino threaten harvests, livestock, and water supplies in Sudan's war-affected Kordofan region, El Obeid, North Kordofan, Sudan, September 13, 2026. (Reuters)

Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces launched a coordinated drone attack Monday against five power stations, causing mass power outages across the country's east, a government official told AFP.

The drones hit two power stations each in the states of Al-Jazira and Gedaref, and one in White Nile state, "resulting in power outages across large parts of these three states", the official said on condition of anonymity.

All three states are controlled by the Sudanese army, which has since April 2023 been at war with its former ally, the RSF.

The United Nations has repeatedly warned that regular attacks on power stations threaten health and services for millions of people, already facing the world's largest hunger crisis.

An AFP correspondent in Al-Jazira state reported the electricity had been out since 2 am (0000 GMT).

Babiker Youssef, a resident of Al-Fao in Gedaref, said the power there had also been out since the same time.

"My son is diabetic, his insulin has to be stored in the fridge," he told AFP over the phone, scared he would not be able to replace the medication if it spoils.

"We have no idea when the power will come back," he added.

Electricity has been cut for days at a time after past paramilitary drone strikes on power stations and hydroelectric dams, compounding the suffering of nearly 20 million people facing extreme hunger.

- 'Losing our stock' -

Sudan's war is currently being fought primarily via drones, with both sides launching sophisticated attacks from across the country, killing dozens of civilians at a time.

In the first three weeks of October alone, drone strikes killed over 300 people and injured hundreds more, according to a UN tally.

Africa's third-largest country, home to an estimated 50 million people, has been ravaged by the war, which aid workers estimate has killed more than 200,000 people.

The majority of Sudan's hospitals have been forced shut, at least eight million children are out of school and swathes of the country cannot access basic services.

"The electricity had just started to improve three months ago, the power station the militia had destroyed was just repaired and we had hope our irrigation pumps would finally start running again," a 54-year-old farmer, Abdelhafez Daafallah, told AFP over the phone from Al-Jazira's Al-Junaid town.

"We hoped we would be able to finally get back to farming, but now the station has been hit," he said, frustrated after nearly four years unable to till his land.

Farmers in Al-Jazira have struggled to rehabilitate and re-plant their land since the army recaptured the state from the RSF last year.

Further east, in Gedaref, grocer Ibrahim Mohammed, 37, said he was "already facing power cuts for hours before the strike".

"Now I have chicken in the fridge, we either lose our entire stock, or will be forced to sell it off at any price, which is still a loss."

Sudan is also grappling with unprecedented inflation and a currency in freefall, having lost over 25 percent of its value in recent weeks.

Arab World

Syrian Official: 25% of Displaced People Have Left Northern Camps

A convoy carrying 108 displaced families from the Al-Rasm al-Jadid and Al-Rasm al-Qadim camps in Manbij, north of Aleppo (Syrian Civil Defense). 
A convoy carrying 108 displaced families from the Al-Rasm al-Jadid and Al-Rasm al-Qadim camps in Manbij, north of Aleppo (Syrian Civil Defense). 
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Syrian Official: 25% of Displaced People Have Left Northern Camps

A convoy carrying 108 displaced families from the Al-Rasm al-Jadid and Al-Rasm al-Qadim camps in Manbij, north of Aleppo (Syrian Civil Defense). 
A convoy carrying 108 displaced families from the Al-Rasm al-Jadid and Al-Rasm al-Qadim camps in Manbij, north of Aleppo (Syrian Civil Defense). 

Around 25% of displaced Syrians living in camps in northern Syria have returned to their home areas since the launch of the “Syria Without Camps” initiative in May, Deputy Minister of Emergency and Disaster Management Ahmed Ekzayez told Asharq Al-Awsat.

Ekzayez explained that the initiative goes beyond closing displacement camps, focusing instead on restoring conditions in areas of origin to enable safe, voluntary, and dignified returns.

This includes rehabilitating hospitals, clinics, schools, water and sanitation networks, communications and roads, alongside creating employment opportunities for returnees.

Hundreds of Families Return Home

The Syrian Civil Defense reported that approximately 233 families left displacement camps in northern Idlib on Sunday for their home areas in Rural Damascus, Latakia, Homs, Deir Ezzor, Hama and the southern and eastern Idlib countryside.

The returns were organized under the auspices of Idlib governorate, in cooperation with social affairs and emergency management authorities, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), the Muzn Organization and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent. A UN delegation attended the aid distribution.

Most returning families originated from southern Idlib and northern Hama, according to the official SANA news agency.

Meanwhile, the Al-Rasm al-Jadid and Al-Rasm al-Qadim camps in Manbij, eastern Aleppo province, were officially closed after approximately 108 displaced families returned to their home areas in Aleppo and Idlib.

Aleppo’s Directorate of Social Affairs and Labor confirmed the closures following the departure of the final convoy on Sunday.

The Civil Defense Directorate reported that additional voluntary return convoys departed camps in the Idlib and Aleppo countryside under the supervision of the national committee overseeing the “Syria Without Camps” initiative.

Emergency and Disaster Management Ministry teams helped secure the convoys and provide healthcare services.

The operations form part of efforts to implement Decree No. 59, which provides for rehabilitating damaged areas and creating suitable conditions for displaced residents to return.

Plan to Close Camps by 2027

The Syrian government launched its “Syria Without Camps” initiative on May 9, 2026, aiming to resolve internal displacement and dismantle camps by September 2027.

More than 200 camps were closed over the past year, but approximately 140,000 families, representing more than 700,000 people, remained in camps as of September 2026.

Speaking Friday at a UN side event on reconstruction and sustainable solutions to internal displacement following widespread destruction caused by conflict and disasters, Syria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ibrahim Olabi, appealed for international assistance.

He emphasized the need to rebuild affected communities, restore essential services and create livelihoods to support sustainable returns.

Olabi maintained that the government had addressed the root causes of internal displacement but warned that ensuring lasting returns would require substantial resources.

He also cautioned that the actions of Israeli forces in southern Syria were generating a new wave of displacement.

Sharp Decline in Northern Camps

Before the fall of the Assad government, northern Syria had more than 1,500 displacement camps and shelters, including 1,146 camps in Idlib alone.

Over nearly two years, the number of camps in the north fell to approximately 1,025, comprising 634 in Idlib and 391 in Aleppo.

The number of displaced families living in northern camps also declined from 261,000 to around 140,000, including approximately 82,000 in Idlib and 55,000 in Aleppo.

Across Syria, however, some 1,247 camps and shelters remain, underscoring the scale of the challenge facing authorities as they seek to end prolonged displacement.