You spelled Iraq as "Irak". Is there a meaning to this? I couldn't find a reference but wonder if that's somehow a meaningful spelling.

It's the spelling used by French, German and couple of neighbouring languages.

Yes it's how we write in french.

Romanizations are fashion trends rather than any kind of science or real standardized system. Other than those places with Roman-era Latin spellings like Syria, others have dozens of variants.

Yeah, he's probably French.