Economy
Ankara, Baghdad to sign 12-month deal on Iraq-Türkiye pipeline
Türkiye and Iraq are set to sign a one-year agreement in the coming days to keep open the crude oil pipeline between the two countries, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said on Thursday.
Their decades-old agreement, which governs exports through the Iraq-Türkiye Crude Oil Pipeline, is due to expire on July 27.
“We have brought the agreement that will cover the next 12 months to the final stage. We aim to sign it in the coming days,” Bayraktar, who was in Baghdad for an official visit, said in a statement.
He added that oil flow from Iraq to Türkiye’s port of Ceyhan on the eastern Mediterranean coast will continue.
The pipeline had remained offline for 2-1/2 years after an arbitration court ruled for Ankara to pay $1.5 billion over what it said were unauthorized exports by Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) between 2014 and 2018.
Türkiye, on the other hand, said the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) had recognized most of Ankara’s demands.
Flows resumed late last year.
Earlier on Thursday, Bayraktar said he had a fruitful meeting with Iraqi Oil Minister Basim Mohammed Khudair, during which they discussed oil and gas cooperation.
“We assessed the areas of cooperation we can develop in the oil and natural gas sectors, particularly focusing on the Iraq-Türkiye Crude Oil Pipeline,” he wrote on the social media platform X.
He said the effective use of existing infrastructure and its support through new connections form the foundation of the two countries’ shared energy vision.
Bayraktar added that Türkiye aims to turn the Development Road Project into not only a trade and transportation corridor but also a regional energy route.
He said Ankara attaches importance to advancing cooperation with Iraq’s newly established government through close coordination, and that concrete steps would raise the partnership between the two countries to a higher level.
Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi also met with Bayraktar during his visit, according to his office.
During the meeting, al-Zaidi said the two countries have significant opportunities for cooperation and partnership across multiple sectors and called on Türkiye to increase its investments in Iraq, particularly in agriculture.
He said efforts are underway to establish a Türkiye-Iraq fund to strengthen the two countries’ economic partnership and support and accelerate Turkish investments in Iraq.
Al-Zaidi also stressed that Iraq is making significant progress under a major development program, particularly in the agriculture and livestock sectors, adding that the government has begun providing the necessary infrastructure and facilities for investors.
The German economy expanded slightly more than previously estimated in the second quarter of the year, owing to strong exports, official data showed Tuesday, thus weathering the turmoil unleashed by the U.S.-Iran war better than feared.
Gross domestic product (GDP) grew 0.3% from April to June compared with the first three months of the year, according to revised data from the statistics office, Destatis.
A first estimate in July had put growth at 0.2%, after expansion of 0.4% in the first quarter.
“The German economy is maintaining the growth momentum seen at the start of the year,” said Destatis’s chief, Ruth Brand, adding that “growth was primarily driven by the positive development of exports.”
The revision to second-quarter growth is another sign that the eurozone’s manufacturing powerhouse could be weathering the energy shock unleashed by the U.S. and Israel’s war against Iran better than feared.
Factory output and exports have also been up in recent months despite the fallout from the conflict.
The closely watched ifo business confidence survey released Tuesday rose for the fourth time in a row in August, to 88.8 points, its highest level in over a year.
The increase beat analyst expectations and was a “huge surprise,” said Frank Brandmaier, an analyst at the bank KfW, adding that it was the latest piece of data to “suggest that the overall positive trend is continuing.”
‘More resilient than feared’
The revised GDP data showed that exports rose 2% in the second quarter from the first, while imports were also up substantially.
Investment fell slightly, dragged down by a hefty fall in the machinery and equipment sectors. Spending by both households and governments registered a small increase.
The German economy has stagnated for several years due to high energy costs, growing competition from China and U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Hopes had been high at the start of the year that it would stage a strong rebound thanks to Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s spending blitz on defense and infrastructure.
The outbreak of the Middle East war has dimmed those expectations after the hit to energy-intensive manufacturers, with the government now expecting growth of just 0.5% for 2026 as a whole.
The revision of GDP data “is clearly good news,” ING bank analyst Carsten Brzeski told Agence France-Presse (AFP), adding that “it shows that the economy has been more resilient than feared.”
“It also shows that German industry benefited from the fact that Asian competitors suffered more from the war in the Middle East than they themselves. Some industrial orders were actually reverted from Asia to Germany,” he said.
Brzeski warned, however, that Germany faced other problems, from high global energy prices to low water levels on major rivers after months of drought that have hampered cargo transport.
He also warned that Merz’s government must push through a raft of reforms it has promised, from social welfare overhauls to efforts to ease bureaucratic hurdles and other burdens on business.
“Looking ahead, the low water levels, the continued high oil prices and the political struggle to really implement the announced reforms are clear headwinds for German growth,” Brzeski said.
Iranian rial plunged to a record low on Monday as Washington prepared to announce new sanctions that it said would put more pressure on a fragile economy already battered by previous sanctions and a U.S. naval blockade.
The rial dropped to 2.02 million to the U.S. dollar as trading opened on currency markets. Iran’s official central bank rate stood at around 1.5 million rial to the dollar, but the market rate is what most Iranians pay.
The currency had already been under pressure before the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, as Iran faced double-digit inflation and negative growth.
The rial has repeatedly hit new lows as nearly six months of war have taken an even greater toll.
Iranians find daily staples increasingly unaffordable. Since the war began, rice is up some 60% and beef prices are more than 150% higher.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecasts that gross domestic product (GDP) will contract more than 5%.
Still, economic pressure has not yet translated into political pressure.
Iran retains a key strategic advantage: Its attacks and threats on ships in the Strait of Hormuz have brought traffic in the vital waterway to a near halt, damaging the world economy and heaping pressure on U.S. President Donald Trump ahead of congressional elections.
The war, as a result, has devolved into a fight over who controls the strait, through which a fifth of the world’s traded oil transited before the conflict. Iran is now refusing to fully reopen it unless it can charge ships.
Iran and Oman, which is located on the opposite side of the strait, are reportedly in the final stages of agreeing on a plan for joint management of the waterway. Oman’s foreign minister is set to visit Iran on Tuesday.
In an attempt to break the impasse, Trump’s administration promised that even stronger sanctions would be announced on Monday, including secondary sanctions on countries that continue to do business with Iran.
Ahead of the announcement, Trump posted on social media that “IRAN IS COMPLETELY COLLAPSING!!!”
“President Trump decimated Iran’s economy to a point where the rial has never been weaker and inflation has rarely been higher,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent wrote Sunday in an opinion piece in the Financial Times (FT).
“The regime’s final refuge now lies in the self-deception of fearful nations that still believe accommodating aggression can secure a durable peace.”
Already last week, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced that it was suspending all trade with Iran. The UAE has long been one of Iran’s largest trading partners and its biggest source of imports.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei told reporters in Tehran on Monday that “any escalation of this situation will undoubtedly bring about consequences.”
“Our hands are not tied,” he added.
Pakistan, which played a key role in brokering a 60-day cease-fire in June, sent a high-level delegation to Iran on Monday to discuss ending the war, the military said.
Trump recently spoke with Pakistani Field Marshal Asim Munir ahead of the army chief’s visit to Iran, according to a person familiar with the discussion.
The person spoke on condition of anonymity to confirm a private conversation. Reuters, citing Pakistani sources, first reported the call.
In downtown Tehran, 73-year-old Sadegh Mahmoudi did not hold out hope for a resolution.
He joined a line of about a dozen people to purchase U.S. dollars, with his remaining savings to hedge against further declines.
“There is no hope for a deal and peace,” he said.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent pledged on Monday to crush Iran’s economy as he gave a live address on a new pressure campaign against Tehran nearly six months into the war, suggesting “no one” should test Washington’s resolve.
Bessent said that new U.S. sanctions aim to “block every potential source of revenue” for Iran and told nations to cut economic ties to Tehran or face retaliation. He termed the operation as the “Operation Economic Outcast.”
“Around the globe, our objective is to sever every economic lifeline that sustains this tyrannical regime until Tehran stands alone,” Bessent told a press conference, announcing secondary sanctions measures.
He said Tehran had two choices before them, either “complete global isolation” or the “path to normalcy.”
Bessent made the announcement as Iran’s currency hit a record low.
“We are going to hold everyone accountable, and this is economic asphyxiation of this regime.”
He added that countries not joining U.S. sanctions would “share in the isolation” of Iran, and noted that President Donald Trump is making phone calls to world leaders with requests to stop their interactions with Tehran.
The Treasury Department said Monday that it has “issued determinations against five critical sectors – digital assets, technology, gold, aviation, and shipping – that the Iranian regime uses to try to prop up its failing economy.”
Bessent, meanwhile, vowed that any entity “that facilitates money laundering on behalf of Iran will be removed from the U.S. dollar system.”
Asked if Chinese banks dealing with Iran could be targeted, Bessent said that: “No one is above the reach of U.S. sanctions.”
“Those who stand with the United States will reap the rewards of our partnership. Those who tether themselves to the Iranian regime should expect to share in the isolation,” he also said.
The Treasury chief earlier declared that an “economic D-Day” had begun against Tehran, in a column for the Financial Times.
The U.S. and Israel triggered the Middle East war with a massive wave of bombing against Iran on Feb. 28, sparking Iranian retaliation across the region.
Saudi Arabia and France inked on Monday a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for a 6-billion-euro ($7-billion) Saudi investment to construct three theme parks near Paris, including one likely to be manga-themed, the French president’s office said.
The French presidency’s Elysee Palace said the agreement for the “colossal” project was signed during a two-day visit to France by Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS).
The investment will see the construction of three theme parks near Cergy-Pontoise, some 30 kilometers (19 miles) northwest of Paris, it said.
French President Emmanuel Macron on X hailed the “unprecedented announcement,” saying the attractions would be a “new global destination.”
The project will be led by an investment firm Qiddiya, a subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund.
The parks are expected to create some 22,000 direct jobs, compared with around 20,000 generated by Disneyland Paris, according to the presidency.
The project “stemmed from a discussion between the president of the republic and the crown prince in December 2024” in Riyadh, where they discovered their “shared passion” for manga, “and in particular Dragon Ball Z,” an adviser to Macron told reporters.
Reports had emerged over the summer of plans for a park dedicated to the iconic Japanese franchise in the Val-d’Oise region, though no official confirmation was given.
Macron’s office confirmed that one park is expected to be manga-themed.
The themes of the other two have yet to be disclosed.
The parks will be built and opened in stages, with construction expected to take several years, the Elysee said, without giving an opening date.
The trip marks a rare foreign visit for the crown prince, with Paris emphasizing that he seldom leaves his home country other than for international summits.
It was his first such trip in almost a year.
On Sunday, Macron hosted the Saudi crown prince at the Esports World Cup, while Monday’s talks were also expected to focus on strategic issues, including events in the Middle East.
The Trump administration on Monday moved to introduce a new, over $100,000 fee on employers hiring foreign workers through a high-skilled visa program, after facing a legal setback in an earlier effort.
Curbing immigration, both undocumented and lawful, has been a key goal of President Donald Trump and a persistent demand of his Make America Great Again (MAGA) base.
The $103,265 fee for H-1B visas would serve as a “revenue mechanism” to recoup the costs of administering the lawful immigration system, the Department of Homeland Security said of its newly proposed rule.
The administration has argued the visa program has been exploited to replace, rather than supplement, American workers, and in September 2025, it issued a presidential proclamation imposing a $100,000 fee to combat what it called “systemic abuse.”
But a federal judge in June blocked that order, siding with 20 Democratic-led states in a lawsuit that contended the fee constituted an unlawful tax that bypassed Congressional authority.
Another federal judge in December 2025 upheld the same action, finding the president had “broad statutory authority” to address “a problem he perceives to be a matter of economic and national security.” That ruling is being appealed.
In the new proposal, the administration leans more heavily on cost-based arguments, saying it needs to make up the costs of its agencies, including the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
However, it also acknowledges it would have what it calls an “indirect” benefit: “U.S. employers, if required to pay an additional $103,265 fee when filing an H-1B cap-subject petition, would be less likely to hire an H-1B worker over a qualified and highly-skilled American.”
And it says the new proposed fee “would be in addition to any other applicable fees or payments,” including the fee from the presidential proclamation under legal review. However, this is set to expire this September, unless it is extended.
There will be a 30-day public comments window before any rule can take effect.
There are likely to be legal challenges based on a number of arguments, including the previously advanced theory that the new proposal is a de facto tax, and that it exceeds statutory authority.
Congress created the H-1B program in 1990, and the U.S. currently awards 85,000 H-1B visas per year.
In fiscal year 2025, 70% of H-1B workers came from India, followed by China with 12%, then the Philippines, Canada and South Korea, according to official data.
Amazon is the biggest employer, accounting for more than 9,000 approved H-1B visas in fiscal year 2026.
Past holders of H-1B visas include several prominent tech executives, including SpaceX’s Elon Musk and Google CEO Sundar Pichai.
Critics say the new rules will leave critical shortages in different fields, including IT, engineering, education and medicine.
Türkiye and Qatar aim to lift their bilateral trade volume to $5 billion, Trade Minister Ömer Bolat said on Monday as he hosted Qatar’s Minister of State for Foreign Trade, Ahmed bin Mohammed Al-Sayed, in Ankara.
“Türkiye-Qatar relations have truly made tremendous progress. Our total annual foreign trade increased 53-fold over the past 21 years, reaching $1.3 billion last year,” Bolat told reporters after the meeting.
Trade between the two countries climbed as high as $2.5 billion during preparations for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, largely due to construction projects, he added.
Bolat said the Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement (TEPA) between Türkiye and Qatar, which entered into force last year, would make a significant contribution to achieving the $5 billion trade target.
Turkish contractors have undertaken 206 projects worth a combined $21 billion in Qatar, he also said.
Around 250 Qatari companies have investments totaling $7.8 billion in Türkiye, spanning sectors including finance, banking, energy, logistics, media and agriculture.
Meanwhile, approximately 1,116 Turkish companies of various sizes operate in Qatar’s construction, services and manufacturing sectors.
Alternative trade routes amid Hormuz disruption
Moreover, Bolat said that the closure of the Strait of Hormuz due to the war in the region had created logistics and supply bottlenecks, highlighting the need for alternative routes.
“The current circumstances have shown that alternative routes are greatly needed to avoid dependence solely on maritime transport and the Strait of Hormuz,” he said.
Türkiye is working to meet Qatar and other Gulf countries’ demand for consumer goods, Bolat noted.
Under a transit transportation agreement with Saudi Arabia that took effect on April 15, Turkish carriers have been conducting intensive shipments to Gulf countries through Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, as well as via Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
“We will work together to establish these transit and trade corridors on a stronger and more stable basis,” he said.
Bolat added that Al-Sayed conveyed the Qatar Investment Authority’s desire to expand its investments in Türkiye and said initiatives were underway in this regard.
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