US forces ended their mission in Iraq on Wednesday, a departure celebrated as a victory by Iran and its allies, amid fears it will leave a security vacuum that further emboldens Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias and gives the resurgent Islamic State group an opening to regroup.
The withdrawal from the last US bases in Iraq came as Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps urged Americans to vote out President Donald Trump's allies in Congress. Iraqi Airways is preparing to resume flights to Iran in October after securing a special exemption from US sanctions, Iraq's transport ministry said, while Italy completed the withdrawal of its last troops, ending a 12-year military presence.
In Doha, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi received US feedback through Qatari mediators on Tuesday on a seven-day plan aimed at building trust between Washington and Tehran, with sequencing the main sticking point, an official briefed on the talks told Reuters. A source involved in the negotiations told Channel 13 News the sides remain far from agreement and that the talks are moving "more in the direction of a clash than a deal." Trump said Tuesday he does not know if Iran is going to "give up yet" but cast the country as doing "very poorly" in its war with the US, and denied he was willing to ease sanctions.
The US announced fresh sanctions Tuesday on 13 individuals and entities, including some based in Russia, China, Hong Kong and Pakistan, saying they helped Iran procure weapons and components. Iran's currency fell to a new record low, with traders in Tehran exchanging more than 2.5 million rials to the dollar, as a US blockade cuts the state's oil export lifeline. Medication prices are soaring and some treatments have become hard to find, the Associated Press reported.
Russian air strikes killed three people, including a child, and injured seven others in Kyiv and the surrounding region early Wednesday, officials said. The attack on Ukraine's National Academy of Sciences on Monday dealt a serious blow to the country's pre-eminent research institution, a recent center of wartime innovation. Belgium will transfer three F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine by the end of the year, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.
In the Middle East, the Board of Peace unveiled a Gaza recovery plan while Israel reported 18 ceasefire violations between September 15 and 29, according to FDD's Long War Journal. A FlyDubai flight from the United Arab Emirates to Israel made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday after an extreme descent and rise in flight, preliminary flight-tracking data showed.
FDD will host its "FDD Morning Brief" at 8:30am ET, featuring Jonathan Schanzer and Ambassador Jeff Bartos.