Under pressure from armed factions, Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi’s government secured US approval for Iranian airlines, excluding Mahan Air, to operate 40 daily flights to and from Najaf airport, drawing praise from Iran-aligned figures and groups in Iraq.

The US Treasury Department issued a tightly restricted, one-month license last Tuesday, allowing Iraqi Airways to fly to Iran exclusively from Najaf airport.

Had anyone told me while I was dodging IEDs in 2007 that I'd be writing about the final withdrawal at age 48, I would have rightly questioned the entire project  - Dan Grazier, responsiblestatescraft.org

I do know that my Marines and I survived some close calls.

Posted by Tyler Durden: Via Middle East Eye

For more than two decades, Iraq's oil wealth has passed through a financial system centered thousands of miles away in New York. The arrangement, created after the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, was initially designed to protect Iraqi oil revenues from creditors and help fund reconstruction.

Posted by Tyler Durden via thecradle.com

Syria has begun trucking imported gasoline from its Baniyas Refinery into Iraq, adding a return leg to a route Baghdad has used to export its fuel since the US war on Iran led to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a senior Syrian oil official told Reuters on 25 September.

With America being similarly low on crucial defensive systems, which are needed to protect U.S. bases, Saudi Arabia is now left unable to effectively defend key oil and military sites. Iran – which is aligned with the Yemeni and Iraqi militias in a coalition known as the Axis of Resistance – is able to watch as economic pressure builds on Saudi Arabia, and by extension the United States.

Posted by Tyler Durden:  Authored by News Desk via The Cradle,

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi announced a June 2027 deadline for the disarmament of the country's resistance factions in comments released on 21 September, extending a previous deadline which had been set for the end of this month.

By Tom Engelhardt, antiwar.com

I was almost six years old when the Korean War began and Korea was a mere 7,000 or so miles from Washington, D.C. I’m now 82 years old and my country is at war with Iran, whose capital, Tehran, is — phew! — only about 6,300 miles from Washington, D.C. What a relief!