Situation context
Iraq is a Middle Eastern country bordered by Turkiye, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, and the Persian Gulf. The Tigris and Euphrates rivers run through the country, forming the historic region of Mesopotamia. Iraq has major oil resources and a long history as a center of ancient civilizations, trade, scholarship, and political power.
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What is Iraq situation about?
Middle East - Iraq - Overview
What this is about The Security Council’s Iraq file is about a country trying to consolidate recovery and rebuild institutions, while still facing several overlapping sources of instability. At its core, the Iraq situation concerns: persistent internal grievances over corruption, weak governance, unemployment, poor services and lack of public trust; continuing security threats from ISIL/Da’esh, which the Council says remains active despite its territorial defeat; armed actors outside full State control, which complicate security and sovereignty; tensions between Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government, especially over oil, budget, security and disputed areas; regional spillover, with Iraq repeatedly affected by wider Middle East confrontations playing out on its territory or in its airspace. In plain terms, the Council discusses Iraq as a country that has moved beyond the height of...
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How did the Iraq situation evolve over time?
Middle East - Iraq - Timeline
Iraq at the Security Council: how the situation evolved The Iraq file changed markedly in Security Council discussions between 2020 and mid-2025. In simple terms, the story moved through three broad phases: Crisis and paralysis after the 2019 protest movement A difficult shift back to elections and government formation Gradual stabilization, paired with a planned UN drawdown — but with major unresolved security and governance problems --- The longer background When the Council discussed Iraq in later years, UN briefers repeatedly framed the country’s trajectory against two earlier turning points: Resolution 1483 (2003), recalled in a February 2023 briefing, as the Council’s effort to chart a way forward for post-Saddam Iraq and the beginning of the UNAMI era. The territorial defeat of Da’esh in 2017, which the Council treated as a major shift from existential war toward reconstruction,...
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