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Iraq Row Erupts Over ‘Missing’ $140 Bn

A session of Iraq’s parliament in Baghdad, March 2026. (Iraqi News Agency)
A session of Iraq’s parliament in Baghdad, March 2026. (Iraqi News Agency)
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Iraq Row Erupts Over ‘Missing’ $140 Bn

A session of Iraq’s parliament in Baghdad, March 2026. (Iraqi News Agency)
A session of Iraq’s parliament in Baghdad, March 2026. (Iraqi News Agency)

A senior Iraqi official has ignited a new dispute over the fate of about $140 billion in public revenues, as Iraq presses ahead with corruption investigations involving high-ranking officials at the oil and electricity ministries.

The cases center on allegations that tens of millions of dollars and billions of Iraqi dinars were stolen through contracts suspected of being fake.

The developments come as the Iraqi government faces mounting financial and political pressure ahead of Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi’s visit to the United States in mid-July.

The government is also grappling with efforts to bring weapons under state control, complete the formation of the government and confront financial strain caused by a drop in Iraqi oil exports after the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

The pressure has prompted Baghdad to seek alternatives to secure state employees’ salaries for the next three months.

Missing $140 billion

In a televised interview broadcast two days ago, former Finance Ministry undersecretary Masoud Haider said the state treasury had received about 455 trillion dinars over the three years of the previous government, equivalent, by his estimate, to about $345 billion.

Haider said operating spending and public-sector salaries totaled about $205 billion, then questioned the fate of the remaining $140 billion.

Haider, a member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, said spending on infrastructure projects, including overpasses in Baghdad, could not explain the gap.

He accused the Finance Ministry of blocking his access to data from the accounting and budget departments while he served as undersecretary.

He said the restriction was imposed because of his ethnic and party affiliation and presented an official document that he said barred the two departments from dealing with him without the minister’s approval.

Haider said he informed former Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani of what he described as a legal violation, but said Sudani took no action.

Former Finance Minister Taif Sami denied the accusations. In a statement, she said Haider’s remarks were “baseless and not supported by any reports or official documents issued by the relevant oversight authorities.”

Sami said oil revenues are monitored and audited by the Federal Integrity Commission and the Federal Board of Supreme Audit, as well as by international auditing systems that track oil exports and reconcile exported volumes with collected revenues.

She said the disappearance of the cited sums would be “impossible” without their appearing in official records and reports.

She said non-oil revenues had also grown in recent years as a result of reform measures, including the introduction of point-of-sale systems and follow-up with public companies to collect dues and transfer them to the public treasury after audit by the Federal Board of Supreme Audit.

On revenues from the Kurdistan Region, Sami said the file differed from other federal revenues. She said the region’s revenues had not been transferred to the federal treasury in a way that would allow them to be included in the accounts cited.

Sami said maintaining public trust in financial and oversight institutions required accuracy and reliance on facts and official documents, not estimates or accusations unsupported by evidence.

Major budget changes

On Iraq’s severe financial crisis, lawmaker Hussein al-Daraji said in press remarks that the time left this year was not enough to prepare and pass a 2026 budget draft in parliament.

He said the government was instead preparing a draft 2027 budget, which he expected to be sent to parliament in October or November.

Daraji said the government planned major changes to the 2027 budget law, making it different from previous budgets in how it is prepared, how its tables are structured and how spending is set.

He said the decision to bypass the 2026 budget was driven by accounting issues stemming from the advanced stage of the fiscal year. The state, he said, is still spending under a temporary one-twelfth disbursement mechanism, based on the Financial Management Law and the previous three-year budget.

According to the parliamentary finance committee, the government and parliament have agreed to focus technical efforts on preparing the 2027 budget in an economic format with new spending tables.

The draft is expected to be referred to parliament before the end of the year, with the aim of reducing the deficit and passing it before the start of the new fiscal year.

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Arab World

Syria Hails Shift From Captagon Hub to Anti-Drug Partner

Syria’s Anti-Narcotics Directorate seized 25 million professionally packaged Captagon pills. (Syrian Interior Ministry)
Syria’s Anti-Narcotics Directorate seized 25 million professionally packaged Captagon pills. (Syrian Interior Ministry)
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Syria Hails Shift From Captagon Hub to Anti-Drug Partner

Syria’s Anti-Narcotics Directorate seized 25 million professionally packaged Captagon pills. (Syrian Interior Ministry)
Syria’s Anti-Narcotics Directorate seized 25 million professionally packaged Captagon pills. (Syrian Interior Ministry)

Syria on Friday marked what it called its shift from a “Captagon hub” to a “partner in combating it,” as the world observed the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.

The official Syrian Arab News Agency, SANA, said this year’s event was held under the slogan “The global drug problem: persistent issues, new challenges and innovative responses,” citing rapid changes in global drug markets, the rise of new substances and increasingly complex smuggling routes.

SANA said the occasion came as Syria presses ahead with efforts to dismantle drug production and smuggling networks following changes in the file after the fall of the former government, a reference to the government of former President Bashar al-Assad.

“After years in which Syria, under the former regime, was one of the world’s most prominent hubs for producing and smuggling Captagon, the country entered a new phase after liberation,” SANA said in a report on Friday.

That phase, it said, is focused on dismantling drug factories, pursuing trafficking networks and expanding international cooperation, turning Syria “from a source of threat into an active partner in combating it.”

SANA said that in December 2025, one year after Assad’s government fell, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, UNODC, confirmed the disruption of large-scale Captagon manufacturing in Syria.

It said the Syrian government had dismantled 15 Captagon manufacturing facilities and 13 smaller storage sites since December 2024, the month the former government fell.

The agency said UNODC’s 2026 report also noted that disruption in the Captagon market after Assad’s fall had pushed up pill prices in some areas. The report also warned that some users could turn to other synthetic drugs, such as methamphetamine.

Coinciding with the international anti-drug day, SANA said the Interior and Health ministries had launched a national campaign under the slogan “Syria Without Drugs.”

Brig. Gen. Khaled Eid, head of the Anti-Narcotics Directorate, told Syrian Alikhbariah that reaching a “Syria Without Drugs” was not just a slogan, but a national project built on scientific and carefully studied plans.

He said the campaign rests on a balance between deterrence and treatment. “The user is viewed as a victim who requires care, while the dealer and smuggler are treated as perpetrators of a crime that requires punishment,” he said.

Eid said the Interior Ministry had faced “a complex reality” in recent months, including local manufacturing centers and distribution networks targeting young people. He said this required stronger security controls, tighter oversight of border crossings, better-equipped anti-narcotics units with modern tracking technology, and an integrated database on active networks.

According to SANA, Syria’s Anti-Narcotics Directorate has carried out 1,550 drug seizures and interdiction operations since Assad’s fall. The operations led to the dismantling of 90 international smuggling networks and the closure of 17 Captagon factories.

The seized materials included 697 million Captagon pills, 15 metric tons of hashish, 10 million narcotic pharmaceutical pills, 180 kg of cocaine, 84.5 kg of crystal meth, 7 kg of heroin and 221 metric tons of chemical precursors, according to Eid.

Separately, the UN Security Council unanimously passed a resolution renewing the mandate of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force in the Golan, known as UNDOF, during a session on Thursday.

Syrian Alikhbariah quoted Syria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ibrahim Olabi, as saying at the session that Syria was now one of the most stable countries in the region and was “engaged in reconstruction, restoring institutions and attracting investment.”

He also cited Syria’s cooperation with international partners on counterterrorism, chemical weapons-related obligations and regional security.

Olabi also addressed political change in Syria, saying “the change in Syria was represented by the disappearance of a regime that practiced torture and used chemical weapons.”

On Israel, Olabi expressed “Syria’s concern over Israeli statements about not withdrawing from Syria,” saying “Israel’s current actions can be interpreted as an attempt to seize the lands it occupied.”

Olabi said the change in Syria that Israel appeared to fear was the removal of “an authoritarian regime that used chemical weapons against its people.” He asked whether Israel preferred the situation that had existed under Assad.

UNDOF was established after the October 1973 war under the Disengagement of Forces Agreement signed by Syria and Israel in 1974. The force has operated since then in the buffer zone to monitor compliance with the ceasefire in the Syrian Golan Heights, which Israel has occupied since 1967.

Arab World

Lebanon Banking on US Pressure to Yield ‘Declaration of Intent’ in Negotiations with Israel

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun chairs a cabinet meeting on Thursday. (Lebanese Presidency)
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun chairs a cabinet meeting on Thursday. (Lebanese Presidency)
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Lebanon Banking on US Pressure to Yield ‘Declaration of Intent’ in Negotiations with Israel

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun chairs a cabinet meeting on Thursday. (Lebanese Presidency)
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun chairs a cabinet meeting on Thursday. (Lebanese Presidency)

Lebanon is counting on US pressure to push Israel to soften its position after the third day of the fifth round of Lebanese-Israeli negotiations in Washington failed to yield a breakthrough.

The two delegations failed to agree on a declaration of intent, prompting the US State Department to extend the round by one day and schedule a fourth session for Friday.

The extension came after Lebanon’s cabinet on Thursday approved a mandate for the negotiating delegation to continue the talks.

The decision was backed unanimously by ministers, including those aligned with Hezbollah and the Amal Movement, even as the “Shiite duo” continues to reject direct negotiations with Israel.

Differences remain

Thursday’s talks were the longest since the fifth round began, lasting 11 hours. They had been expected to end with a news conference, and journalists were invited in the evening.

But the event was canceled without explanation before the US State Department announced that negotiations would continue for another day, signaling that major differences remained.

Sources familiar with the talks said the extension followed a failure to agree on the final wording of the declaration of intent, despite discussions having reached the stage of detailed drafting.

The sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that Lebanon is insisting the declaration include core principles: affirmation of Lebanese sovereignty, recognition of the Lebanese army’s role in extending state authority, and a clear link between any field arrangements or “model areas” and a full Israeli withdrawal from occupied Lebanese territory, along with the return of displaced people.

Israel, the sources said, remains firm. It is demanding security guarantees to prevent Hezbollah from rebuilding its military infrastructure and is refusing to include any clear commitment to a full withdrawal from Lebanese territory in the declaration of intent.

(2L/R) Israel's Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter, State Department Chief of Staff Daniel Holler, US Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa and Lebanese Ambassador to the US Nada Hamadeh attend a meeting between Israeli and Lebanese delegations hosted by the United States at the State Department in Washington, DC, on June 3, 2026. (AFP)

The sources said the main sticking point is the issue of “model areas.” They said Israel had retreated from an earlier approval of the proposal and is now demanding that the Lebanese army first deploy in areas outside the yellow line, meaning areas still under Lebanese state control north of the Litani River.

The aim, the sources said, is for the army to impose control there and disarm Hezbollah. Lebanon rejects that approach and insists that any model areas must first be tied to Israel’s withdrawal from the territory it occupies.

The sources also pointed with concern to security developments on Friday in the south, where Israeli incursions continued. They cited indications of attempts to expand the yellow line on the ground.

“All of this makes Lebanon even more determined to link any understanding to a full Israeli withdrawal,” one source said.

Lebanon banks on US pressure

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had said Thursday that progress had been made in the negotiations and suggested that a declaration of intent could be reached. But that has not happened, with differences between the two delegations still unresolved.

Lebanon is now counting on further US pressure to push Israel to ease its stance and accept the Lebanese proposal in Friday’s session, particularly on withdrawal and the model areas. The sources said Rubio was expected to follow the talks from Washington after returning there.

In parallel, Lebanon’s cabinet approved on Thursday a decision “taking note” of the negotiations underway in Washington.

The decision said the cabinet took note of the mandate granted by the president, in agreement with the prime minister, to the Lebanese negotiating delegation, authorizing it to take the necessary steps to achieve the desired outcome under the delegation's supervision.

The sources said the mandate allows the Lebanese delegation to sign in Washington any agreement or declaration of intent that may be reached, but does not bring it into force. Implementation would still depend on cabinet approval.

They stressed that the delegation is not acting independently. President Joseph Aoun is continuously following the talks and issuing instructions to ensure the delegation remains committed to Lebanon’s core principles throughout the negotiations.

Arab World

Lebanon Welcomes European Push to Form Int’l Coalition to Succeed UNIFIL

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam. (EPA)
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam. (EPA)
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Lebanon Welcomes European Push to Form Int’l Coalition to Succeed UNIFIL

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam. (EPA)
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam. (EPA)

Lebanon welcomed a French-Italian effort to form a multinational coalition that would replace the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) after its mission ends in southern Lebanon.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said Lebanon looked forward to “any international formula that strengthens the capabilities of its armed forces and safeguards its territorial integrity.”

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said the United States “has not vetoed” the creation of an international force to succeed UNIFIL, whose mandate expires at the end of this year.

Salam told Asharq Al-Awsat that Washington had not yet taken a position on the idea of forming the force.

He said the United States had no problem with the proposed international force, but “has a problem with international peacekeeping forces, which have become a major financial burden on the international organization and donor states in return for weak results in maintaining international peace, with some turning into forces that preserve the status quo and prolong crises.”

He said Lebanon had told the UN and friendly countries that it still needed an international force in the south because of the sensitivity of the situation.

He said the force would carry out essential tasks Lebanon needs, chiefly monitoring, reporting on developments to international organizations, and serving as a channel of communication with Israel after decades of wars, hostility, and tension.

Salam said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had visited Lebanon earlier this year and later sent a representative to discuss the issue before submitting three proposals to the Security Council to create the new force.

He said the proposals “will, of course, be open to amendment” so they can fit any security arrangements included in an agreement that may be reached by Lebanese-Israeli negotiations.

French President Emmanuel Macron said after talks with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Thursday: “We want to launch a coalition for the post-UNIFIL arrangement, obviously in coordination with the European Union and the United Nations, to strengthen Lebanon’s sovereignty and that of its armed forces.”

Aoun voiced appreciation for the Italian-French emphasis on the need to avoid “leaving any dangerous vacuum in the post-UNIFIL phase.”

He said Lebanon looked forward to “any international formula that strengthens the capabilities of its armed forces, safeguards its territorial integrity and prevents its land from becoming an arena for escalation or regional disputes.”

UNIFIL’s mandate expires at the end of December under a Security Council resolution adopted in August 2025 under US pressure.

Guterres stressed earlier this month the “necessity” of maintaining a UN military presence in Lebanon after UNIFIL’s mission ends, an option feared likely to face opposition from the United States and Israel.

In a report to the Security Council, Guterres proposed three options, ranging from about 2,000 to more than 5,500 UN troops, to monitor the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah and support the Lebanese Armed Forces.

France is one of the biggest contributors to the peacekeeping force, which currently includes about 7,500 troops from nearly 50 countries deployed in southern Lebanon near the Blue Line.

The force has been deployed since 1978 in southern Lebanon near the border with Israel, but its presence has not been enough to prevent repeated rounds of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.