Iraq Financial News

Iran said it launched dozens of attack drones at Israel on Saturday, in an assault that could trigger a major escalation between the regional archenemies. Iran had vowed to retaliate against Israel for an airstrike on its embassy compound in Damascus, adding to concerns about the potential for further escalation of conflict in the Middle East. Iran has so far played no direct role in the conflict that has spread through the region since the onset of the Gaza war six months ago, while backing groups that have taken part by attacking Israel, U.S. interests, and Red Sea shipping.

provide unspecified support to Israel. “We are monitoring the threat," the Israeli military’s spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, announced in a nationwide television address, saying it would take several hours for the drones to reach Israel.

As we reported yesterday, there are suspicions that now thatVis Raghavan and Achintya Manglahave left JPMorgan's investment banking business broadly and equity capital markets (ECM) business specifically, there will be a heap of other exits from the team. In anticipation of this, London headhunters have assembled some long lists of all the people they think most likely to leave in the very, very near future. 

The ongoing conflict between Israel, the United States, and Iran and its regional allies in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen continues to escalate tensions in the Middle East. The recent Gaza war, triggered by Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel, resulted in significant civilian casualties and hostage-taking.

WASHINGTON—U.S. intelligence reports show that an attack on Israeli assets by Iran or its proxies could be imminent, U.S. officials said Wednesday, as the top American military commander for the Middle East headed to Israel to coordinate a response.

When billionaire philanthropists, celebrities, global embassies, and the National Football League want to lend a helping hand to American veterans, they increasingly turn to one source: the Bob Woodruff Foundation

The killing of three private security contractors in last week’s Israeli strike on an aid convoy in Gaza shined light on an industry that in recent years has shifted from working for military forces to helping protect humanitarian organizations that operate in conflict zones. John Chapman, James Henderson and James Kirby—employees of Solace Global, a U.K.-based security and risk-management company—were among seven who were killed when Israeli drone strikes hit the convoy organized by World Central Kitchen, a humanitarian group founded by chef José Andrés.

Russia captured a larger share of India's crude imports in the just-ended fiscal year despite narrowing discounts on its oil and sanctions imposed by G7 nations due its invasion of Ukraine. The share of Russian oil in India's total imports rose to 35% in 2023-24 from 23% in the previous year, according to energy cargo tracker Vortexa. During the year, all other key suppliers, including Iraq, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and the US lost share in the Indian market. Iraq's share fell to 20% (from 21%). Similar drops were noted for Saudi Arabia (15% from 17.5%), UAE (6% from 9%), and the US (3.5% from 5.5%). Russia supplied 1.57 million barrels a day (mb/d) in FY24, up from 1mb/d in the previous year. Iraq's supply of 0.89 mb/d in 2023-24 was lower than 0.95 mb/d in the previous year. Saudi's supply fell to 0.69 mb/d from 0.78 mb/d.

Qassem Suleimani with a drone strike in 2020. Israeli officials did not publicly claim responsibility for the strike (though in private they leave little doubt about their role). But they did argue that whoever bombed the embassy compound had a right to do so.

Also Read: Expert View | Oil market oversupplied with high US output, Brent seen at $87-$92 for 2024: ShareKhan's Mohammed Imran The JMMC of the OPEC+ cartel, met online on Wednesday, April 3, to review the market and members' implementation of output cuts. In a statement following the meeting, OPEC+ said some member countries had promised to improve their adherence to supply targets.

«India's export trade expansion has been impressive in spite of global challenges in 2023,» the official said. India's merchandise exports have recorded healthy growth in European nations like Romania, Czech Republic, Montenegro, Finland, the Netherlands, Portugal, Luxemburg, Iceland, Ireland, and Austria.

suicide bomber set off his explosives late on Thursday in northwestern Syria, killing the co-founder of the country's main al-Qaida-linked group that controls much of the northwest, a war monitor said. Some activists disputed the source of the explosion, saying instead that a remotely detonated bomb killed Abu Maria al-Qahtani, whose real name was Maysara al-Jubouri. Al-Qahtani co-founded the Nusra Front in Syria, a militant group that later renamed itself Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and claimed it had severed ties with al-Qaida. The conflicting accounts could not immediately be reconciled. According to the Britain-based Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor with a network of activists on the ground, the bomber entered al-Qahtani's guesthouse in the town of Sarmada in Idlib province late in the evening and detonated his explosives.

Finland says it will extend the closure of its border crossing points with Russia beyond the current April 14 deadline “until further notice” due to a high risk of organized migration orchestrated by Moscow

Israel and Iran have fought a shadow war across the Middle East, trading attacks by land, sea, air and in cyberspace. Iran has largely used foreign proxies to strike Israeli interests, while targeted assassinations of Iranian military leaders and nuclear scientists have been a key part of Israel's strategy. Israel's strike in the Syrian capital, Damascus, that killed three top Iranian commanders Monday was the most brazen attack in years, raising fears of a wider confrontation. That would be particularly dangerous in a region already in turmoil on multiple fronts, including Israel's war in the Gaza Strip, cross-border skirmishes between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and attacks by Yemen's Houthi militia against Western interests in the Red Sea. An escalation between Israel and Iran would also risk further entangling the United States, given the presence of U.S. troops in the region.

worst atrocity against Jews since the Holocaust, conflict has spread across the Middle East. In all, ten countries are now caught up in fighting. In Gaza Israeli soldiers and Hamas are still killing each other, even as 2m people face famine.

NEW DELHI : Former chief of the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre, Lindy Cameron, is tipped to become the country’s new high commissioner to India. Should her appointment be confirmed, Cameron will be the first woman to serve as the British high commissioner in New Delhi. Alex Ellis, the incumbent British envoy, is expected to demit office shortly and move on to another diplomatic posting.

Indian tiles exporters have borne the brunt of the Red Sea crisis leading to a dip in volume and value. Tiles exports by volume fell by 12.5% month-on-month and 4.2% year-on-year to 40.6 million square metre in January, showed government data compiled by ICICI Securities Ltd.

Tawfiq Muhammad Said Al-Law, a hawala operator involved in Hezbollah crypto funding, has been sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the federal agency announced Tuesday.

Oil prices fell for a second day on Wednesday after a report that crude stockpiles in the U.S., the world's biggest oil user, surged and on signs major producers are unlikely to change their output policy at a technical meeting next week. Brent crude futures for May dropped 69 cents, or 0.8%, to $85.56 a barrel at 0150 GMT. The May contract is set to to expire on Thursday and the more actively traded June contract declined 60 cents, or 0.7%, at $85.03.

global spread of Homo sapiens. But where did these pioneers go after leaving Africa? After years of debate, a new study offers an answer. These bands of hunter-gatherers appear to have lingered for thousands of years as a homogeneous population in a geographic hub that spanned Iran, southeast Iraq and northeast Saudi Arabia before going on to settle all of Asia and Europe starting roughly 45,000 years ago, scientists said on Monday. Their findings were based on genomic datasets drawn from ancient DNA and modern gene pools, combined with paleoecological evidence that showed that this region would have represented an ideal habitat. The researchers called this region, part of what is called the Persian Plateau, a «hub» for these people — who numbered perhaps only in the thousands — before they continued onward millennia later to more distant locales.

A British court says Julian Assange can’t be extradited to the U.S. on espionage charges unless U.S. authorities guarantee he won’t get the death penalty,