Iraq has granted Starlink a licence to provide satellite internet services, the Communications and Media Commission said, after an agreement was signed in Washington on July 17.
The signing ceremony at the US Chamber of Commerce was attended by Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi and the commission's executive chairman, Baligh Abu Kalal.
The commission, Iraq's converged telecoms and media regulator, said Starlink's entry would widen internet access for consumers and businesses, particularly in remote areas where fixed and mobile infrastructure remains limited, and would support investment and the government's digital transformation programme.
Starlink, operated by Elon Musk's SpaceX, delivers broadband through a constellation of satellites in low Earth orbit, bypassing the ground-based networks on which Iraqi connectivity has traditionally depended. The regulator approved the company's operating licence in June, a decision welcomed at the time by al-Zaidi and Tom Barrack, the US special presidential envoy for Iraq.
The deal was one of 48 agreements and memoranda of understanding Iraq signed with the US government, international companies and global institutions during the Washington summit, with energy, infrastructure and technology projects making up the largest share. Initial agreements with US firms were worth more than $60bn in total, including a deal with Chevron to rebuild the crude pipeline from Kirkuk to Baniyas in Syria.
"We are using an open-door policy," al-Zaidi told the summit. "Everybody who has a project can come and talk to us."
Starlink's arrival adds a new competitor to a telecoms market the regulator has been working to clean up. The commission has spent three years pursuing debts owed by mobile operator Korek Telecom and began seizing the company's assets in May, while pledging to accelerate Iraq's 5G rollout and attract foreign investment to the sector.
Negotiations over Starlink's entry ran through two Iraqi governments. Former prime minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani met SpaceX delegations in May and December 2025 to discuss licensing, coverage areas and the terms of the company's market entry.
WASHINGTON — U.S. companies signed roughly US$60 billion in agreements and partnerships with the Iraqi government Friday, including deals intended to create alternative routes for shipping oil out of the Persian Gulf.
The deals, signed at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, also involved other industries, including healthcare, communications and infrastructure.
It’s not clear when the oil deals will be able to create viable alternatives to the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world’s oil flows. Goldman Sachs estimates that pipelines in just one country take at least two and a half years to build, and these pipelines would travel through two or more nations.
Iran has sought to close the Strait repeatedly since the U.S.-Iran war began Feb. 28, causing sharp gyrations in oil and gas prices.
On Friday afternoon, the price of West Texas crude rose nearly 5 per cent to US$88 a barrel, up from about US$67 before the war began. It had topped US$110 in early April before falling back after a truce was reached. It has since risen on renewed conflict between U.S. and Iran
Thomas Barrack, U.S. Ambassador to Turkey, said the oil pipeline agreements would lead to a program “that will make the Strait of Hormuz an afterthought.”
The signings followed a meeting between Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Falah al-Zaidi Thursday with executives of Chevron in Houston, at which al-Zaidi urged the U.S. energy company to expand and accelerate its investments in Iraq.
In a speech Friday, al-Zaidi said Iraq’s economy is seeking long-term investment and partnerships, not merely contractors to carry out projects.
Al-Zaidi stressed his government’s commitment to communication, dialogue and cooperation with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, describing it as “the place where economic decisions are made.”
On Friday, Chevron signed three agreements with the Iraqi government. Jake Spiering, Chevron’s president of corporate business development, said two would focus on boosting oil production, while a third would involve “investing in a pipeline that’s going to create another export route out of Iraq to world markets. This is very important for energy security.”
In a note released earlier this week, analysts at Goldman Sachs estimated that seven different pipelines in the region under development could, by the end of 2028, carry about 60 per cent of the oil currently shipped through the Strait.
The pipelines could carry roughly 14 million barrels per day by then, Goldman estimated. Roughly 23 million barrels per day were shipped through Hormuz before the Iran war.
After the U.S. and Israel launched their war on Iran Feb. 28, oil-rich Iraq — which is home to both Iran-backed militias and U.S. bases — found itself in the crosshairs. Syria, meanwhile, has been one of the few regional countries that has managed to stay on the sidelines of the conflict. Damascus has promoted Syria — still grappling with the aftermath of its own 14-year civil war — as a bastion of stability and has offered it as an alternative transit route for energy shipments.
With the war dramatically reducing oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz, some oil shipments have instead been trucked from Iraq into Syria and shipped to European markets via Syria’s Baniyas port, bypassing the Hormuz route. A key border crossing between northern Iraq and Syria reopened in April after being closed for more than a decade, with officials touting it as an additional route for energy exports
The overland route is less efficient and more expensive than shipping exports through the strait. The pipeline project envisioned would allow for exporting a larger volume of oil from Iraq to Syria and Turkey.
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Christopher Rugaber And Qassim Abdul-zahra, The Associated Press
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