July 6, 2026. Iraq's parliament moved on the last 9 cabinet seats this weekend. Per accounts close to the floor, 247 lawmakers filled the chamber against a 220 quorum, interior and defence among the posts on the table. Carry the number as reported: no official readout has named the confirmed ministers yet, and a full room is not a finished government. The vote sits 10 days before the prime minister flies to Washington.

The same weekend, US capital walked back through the door. Basra Oil Company signed Halliburton to a 5-year deal on the Bin Omar and Sindbad fields, targeting up to 250,000 more barrels a day and handing upstream work to American hands instead of Chinese, Russian and European firms. A US energy major signing days before al-Zaidi boards the plane is a signal the White House will read.

On the street, the dollar eased in Baghdad and Erbil, the parallel rate narrowing a touch while the official peg holds at 1,300. July 10 is the hard date: Iraq's ASYCUDA customs system goes fully mandatory at every border, shutting the door the cheap dollars walk out of. At Basra, tankers loaded 2 million barrels through Hormuz without a hitch, even as Iran's envoy in Beijing floated transit fees and the Revolutionary Guard pushed ships off the Omani lane.

Across the border, Iran carries Ali Khamenei's body toward Najaf and Karbala on July 8, its new leader Mojtaba Khamenei still absent from the mourning. In Washington, the CLARITY Act missed the Independence Day rumour and now heads for the Senate floor when the chamber returns July 13.

The old sponsor buries its ayatollah next door while Baghdad seats a government it did not pick. The full briefing connects what that sets up for the dinar. Watch the readout.