Source balance
No brief is built from one camp's outlets. Where accounts of an event diverge, the divergence is reported rather than quietly resolved.
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Read the region
before it moves.
A daily intelligence brief on Iraq, the Kurdistan Region and Syria — compiled overnight from across the political spectrum, attributed line by line.
Three months of every edition, free. No payment details taken.
Edition · 30 August 2026
Illustrative
Monthly export figures revised. Three outlets publish three different totals.
A committee vote slips again — what it does to the timetable, and who gains from the delay.
Border traffic reported disrupted. Confirmed by two sources, denied by a third.
Editor's note
Where accounts diverge, the divergence is the story. We report all three rather than picking one, and tell you which parts are confirmed, which are claimed, and what would settle it.
Illustrative layout · Not a real edition · Outlets described by alignment, not named
The problem
The difficulty is not finding coverage.
Iraq, the Kurdistan Region and Syria produce a daily torrent of reporting, across dozens of outlets, most of them aligned with a party, a presidency or a patron.
The difficulty for anyone with money, staff or policy exposure in the region is knowing which account to believe, what has been left out, and what any of it means for the decision in front of them.
International wire coverage does not close that gap. It arrives late, it is thin outside crisis periods, and it rarely distinguishes between an announcement and a fact.
LevantNexus exists to close it. Every night our editors read across the field — Baghdad and Erbil, the governing parties and the opposition, Damascus and the regional press — and compile a single brief for the morning. Short enough to read with a coffee. Complete enough to act on.
The method
Three rules govern every edition.
Attribution
Every factual claim names where it came from, so you can weigh it yourself and follow it further. Nothing arrives unsourced.
Separation
Analytical judgement appears only in clearly marked editor's notes. It is never blended into the reporting.
The product
What lands in your inbox.
One edition each weekday morning, before the working day begins in Erbil, Baghdad and London.
Top stories
The five items that matter, each in a few lines.
Security
Incidents, force movements and armed group activity — and what is claimed against what is confirmed.
Energy
Production, exports, pipelines, contracts, payments and the Baghdad–Erbil file.
KR politics
The parties, the cabinet, the parliament and the presidencies.
Iraq politics
Government formation, parliament, the judiciary and the blocs.
Economy
Budget, banking reform, currency, sanctions and compliance exposure.
Disputed areas
Kirkuk, Sinjar, Makhmour and the Article 140 territories.
Syria & region
Developments in Syria, with the Turkish, Iranian and Gulf dimensions.
Editor's notes
Two to four short judgements per edition, clearly marked as analysis.
Sources
The full list, with a note on how the edition was compiled.
Who reads it
Built for people with something at stake in the region.
Energy & commodities
International oil companies, traders, service firms and their counsel, tracking exports, payment arrears, contract risk and the Baghdad–Erbil dispute.
Banking & compliance
Institutions with Iraqi counterparty exposure, due diligence teams and investors following banking reform, correspondent relationships and sanctions risk.
Diplomatic & policy
Missions, multilaterals, think tanks and non-governmental organisations that need the regional press read for them, accurately and daily.
Security & insurance
Security managers, risk underwriters and logistics operators needing a reliable daily read on the operating environment.
Choose your subscription
Daily intelligence, in the right regional lens.
Two briefings, each with its own lens. Take one, or take both.
Iraq and the Kurdistan Region move on one set of files; Syria moves on another. Reading them separately keeps each edition short enough to finish and specific enough to act on — and means you are not paying for a region you do not cover.
Iraq + Kurdistan Region
01
Iraq & Kurdistan Region Daily Briefing
A daily operating picture across Baghdad, Erbil and the forces shaping Iraq's political, security and commercial environment.
- Political and security shifts
- Energy and commercial signals
- The Baghdad–Erbil file and the disputed territories
Syria
02
Syria Daily Briefing
A focused read on Syria's political, security and regional dynamics — and the implications that travel beyond its borders.
- Political and security shifts
- Regional spillover and access
- Sanctions, reconstruction and cross-border trade
Capabilities
Intelligence that travels from alert to action.
The daily brief is the standing layer. It is not the whole service.
Some questions will not wait for the morning, and some need more than a morning can carry: a counterparty who must be checked before a contract is signed, a governorate where the picture is moving faster than the reporting, an investment decision that turns on a policy shift nobody has announced yet. The same analyst takes that work on directly, for subscribers and non-subscribers alike.
Daily intelligence
The standing brief. Political, security, economic and commercial developments across Iraq, the Kurdistan Region and Syria, every weekday morning.
Rapid alerts
Time-sensitive signals between editions — militia tensions, regional spillover, governance shocks, supply chain disruption — when waiting until tomorrow is not an option.
Strategic assessments
Longer analysis supporting market entry, investment decisions and energy operations, written against a specific question rather than the news cycle.
Counterparty due diligence
Ground-level verification of partners, counterparties and investment targets across Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, built on primary source research rather than desk reviews.
Risk monitoring
Continuous tracking of security, operational and reputational risk, translated into practical guidance for teams working on the ground.
Energy sector reporting
Standing coverage of the Kurdistan Region's oil and gas sector — production, contracts, and the politics shaping the industry.
The offer
Three months of every edition, free.
Long enough to see the brief through a full news cycle, not just a quiet week.
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Tell us who you are
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The first edition arrives
You are added to the next morning's distribution and read every edition for three months.
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Decide at the end
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Who writes it
One author, not a newsroom.
LevantNexus is written by Shwan Zulal, a political and energy analyst who has advised international clients on Iraq, the Kurdistan Region and Syria for close to two decades.
His work runs through Baghdad–Erbil hydrocarbon relations, Kurdish party politics, country risk and counterparty due diligence — the same files the brief covers each morning, worked from the inside rather than summarised from a distance.
Every edition is read, weighed and edited by one person. That is a deliberate constraint: it is what makes the judgement in the brief worth something, and what lets a subscriber take a view knowing whose view it is.
- Affiliation
- Research Associate, EUCERS, King's College London
- Experience
- Close to two decades on Iraq, the KRI and Syria
- Published through
- Carnegie · S&P Global · Insight Turkey · Iraq Energy Outlook
- Based in
- London
Get started
Start the trial, or ask what it costs.
- Three months, genuinely free.Every edition, no restricted version, no payment details taken up front.
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