In June it appeared that the US-Iran War had subsided and the Strait of Hormuz was once again open. In turn, Iraq began loading tanker ships with its oil. By the end of the month however hostilities were renewed and Baghdad was right back to where it started being unsure of its economic future.
1920 Kufa was surrounded by rebels 1920 Revolt
(Musings On Iraq review Reclaiming Iraq, The 1920 Revolution and the Founding of the Modern State)
(Musings On Iraq review Enemy On The Euphrates, The Battle For Iraq 1914-1921)
New Prime Minister Ali Al-Zaidi has decided to thrown in his lot with the United States and the Trump administration. That means disarming the pro-Iran Resistance and fighting corruption. Some of this might actually help Tehran though.
1920 Pro-Independence delegation of Iraqis met UK High Commissioner Wilson who invited 20
pro-British Iraqis Meeting went nowhere British later tried to arrest pro-independence delegates
(Musings On Iraq review Enemy On The Euphrates, The Battle For Iraq 1914-1921)
1733 Safavid siege of Baghdad ended by Ottoman relief force
1921 Christian Jewish Muslim notables had meeting at Grad Rabbi’s house in Baghdad Gave
support for Faisal to be king after much lobbying by Gertrude Bell
(Musings On Iraq review Gertrude Bell And Iraq)
(Musings On Iraq review Gertrude Bell, Explorer of the Middle East)
(Musings On Iraq movie review Letters from Baghdad)
(Musings On Iraq review Desert Queen, The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell: Adventurer, Adviser to Kings, Ally of Lawrence of Arabia)
(Musings On Iraq review A Quest in the Middle East, Gertrude Bell and the Making of Modern Iraq)
The British defeat at Kut during the Mesopotamia campaign was England’s second worse during World War I. Around 12,000 troops were taken prisoner almost half of which died in captivity. Nikolas Gardner in The Siege of Kut-al-Amara, At War In Mesopotamia 1915-1916 attempts to challenge the conventional wisdom about Kut. He makes a convincing argument that the commander General Sir Charles Townshend was responsible for the surrender.
869 Deposed Abbasid Caliph Mutazz executed by Turkish soldiers
(Musings On Iraq review when baghdad ruled the muslim world, the rise and fall of islam’s greatest dynasty)
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| Iraq's Supreme Judicial Council said it may give amnesty to those recently arrested for corruption |
In January 2025 Iraq’s parliament passed a new amnesty law which allowed those accused of corruption to go free if they promised to return the money they stole. It was a way for the state to recover some of its missing funds while not prosecuting officials which could lead to political problems since they were often working for the elite. Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi may apply that same law to those he recently arrested in his anti-graft campaign.
1919 UK India Office official Sir Hirtzel told chief political officer in Iraq Wilson there was
going to be an Arab state in Iraq or there would be a revolt
(Musings On Iraq review Enemy On The Euphrates, The Battle For Iraq 1914-1921)
(Musings On Iraq review When God Made Hell, The British Invasion of Mesopotamia and the Creation of Iraq, 1914-1921)
Iraq’s government dominates the country. It gives out huge contracts every year which are manipulated by the ruling elite.
1914 US consulate in Baghdad reported Sayid Talib and Ottoman forces attacked Sheikh
Ajaimi of Montafiq Confederation in Zubayr Basra vilayet Talib won battle and took town Gave Talib de facto control of all of Basra Led to dismissal of Ottoman governor of vilayet
1915 US consulate report Worried that sectarian war might start with Shiites turning on
Sunni Ottomans due to troubles in Karbala and Najaf
1920 Tribal forces surrounded British garrison at Abu Skhair during 1920 Revolt
1923 1st Parliamentary elections resumed after protests by Shiite clergy led to delay Assembly
wouldn’t meet until Mar 1924
869 Abbasid Caliph Mutazz confronted by Turkish soldiers who wanted to be paid Mutazz beaten
and forced to resign Muhtadi became new caliph
(Musings On Iraq review when baghdad ruled the muslim world, the rise and fall of islam’s greatest dynasty)
1920 Lead political officer in Iraq Wilson sent telegram to India Office Said threat to Iraq was
external coming from Turkey Syria Bolsheviks 1920 Revolt had just started
At the start of July it was reported that Iraq wants to boost its oil production to increase its revenues before the global economy begins moving away from petroleum. Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi said that he set a goal of 7 million barrels a day of output in three years. The premier also told the media that a 10 year economic plan is being created whose goal is reducing the budget’s reliance upon oil from 90% down to 45%. This isn’t much different from all the previous Iraqi PMs that have all spoken about dramatically increasing the oil industry to diversify the economy. The problem is Baghdad has never achieved any of these goals.
1920 UK forces withdrew from Najaf turning over city to rebels who set up their own govt
(Musings On Iraq review Reclaiming Iraq, The 1920 Revolution and the Founding of the Modern State)
(Musings On Iraq review Enemy On The Euphrates, The Battle For Iraq 1914-1921)
1920 Rebels derailed 6 trains going from Diwaniya to Samawa to disrupt flow of British troops and
supplies
(Musings On Iraq review Reclaiming Iraq, The 1920 Revolution and the Founding of the Modern State)
(Musings On Iraq review Enemy On The Euphrates, The Battle For Iraq 1914-1921)
In June 2026 the Financial Task Force put Iraq back on its grey list for countries involved in money laundering. The Task Force’s president Elisa de Anda Madrazo said that Baghdad needed to take urgent measures to cut the volume of cash based transactions, improve investigations, and more. Iraq was on the grey list before starting in 2018 but then taken off only to fall back.
1921 American consul in Baghdad wrote that Faisal would become King of Iraq even though he
was unpopular in the country
1915 UK took Suq al-Shuyuk, Dhi Qar after defeating Turk-Arab forces outside town day
before
(Musings On Iraq review When God Made Hell, The British Invasion of Mesopotamia and the Creation of Iraq, 1914-1921)
1915 British attacked Turk-Arab force outside Suq al-Shuyuk and defeated them
(Musings On Iraq review When God Made Hell, The British Invasion of Mesopotamia and the Creation of Iraq, 1914-1921)
under Gertrude Bell
(Musings On Iraq review Gertrude Bell And Iraq)
(Musings On Iraq review Gertrude Bell, Explorer of the Middle East)
(Musings On Iraq movie review Letters from Baghdad)
(Musings On Iraq review Desert Queen, The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell: Adventurer, Adviser to Kings, Ally of Lawrence of Arabia)
Before the 2003 invasion Khidhir Hamza was one of the leading Iraqis in America warning of the threat posed by Saddam Hussein and advocating for war. He regularly appeared in the media. In 2001 he told PBS’s Frontline that Iraq only needed a nuclear core to build an atomic bomb. In 2002 he gave a presentation to the Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and testified to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee about Iraq’s nuclear weapons program. He told the latter that Iraq had enough uranium to build three bombs by 2005 if it was enriched. At the end of that year his claims were used in a speech by President George Bush as part of the public relations campaign to win support for the invasion. His story was first published in 2000 in Saddam’s Bombmaker, The Terrifying Inside Story Of The Iraqi Nuclear And Biological Weapons Agenda. He turned out to be a fraud.
1923 35 clerics and religious students left Iraq for Persia to protest deportation of cleric Khalisi for
his opposition to parliamentary elections
1922 Law passed to establish political parties in Iraq
1920 British army facing revolt in Rumaitha told no reinforcements coming because railways
destroyed Railway fixed and reinforcements arrived later that day
(Musings On Iraq review Reclaiming Iraq, The 1920 Revolution and the Founding of the Modern State)
(Musings On Iraq review Enemy On The Euphrates, The Battle For Iraq 1914-1921)
In June it appeared that the US-Iran War had subsided and the Strait of Hormuz was once again open. In turn, Iraq began lo...
