Overview
- A senior State Department official said the U.S. will restore suspended oil‑revenue cash transfers and security aid only after Iraq takes concrete steps to distance the state from pro‑Iran armed groups.
- The official cited measures that include removing militia personnel from state institutions, cutting their budget support, and ending salary payments to fighters.
- Iraq’s ruling coalition named Ali al‑Zaidi as prime minister‑designate, and President Donald Trump called to congratulate him as U.S. officials review his ties and plans.
- Cash deliveries of Iraq’s oil earnings flow through the Federal Reserve Bank of New York under a system set up after 2003, and the U.S. froze these transfers following a surge of strikes on its sites.
- U.S. officials report the attacks have mostly eased since a recent ceasefire, though Iranian strikes in Iraqi Kurdistan continued, and they count more than 600 incidents since the late‑winter escalation.