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Venezuela: OPEC to keep present output target

VIENNA (AP) — OPEC oil ministers are heading into a meeting with apparent agreement to keep unchanged their output target of 30 million barrels a day. Venezuelan oil minister Rafael Ramirez says there is "consensus" to keep the status quo. He spoke to reporters Wednesday as the ministers of the 12-nation Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries began their mid-year session on how much crude to pump in the coming months. The decision was expected. The International Energy Agency, oil consultant to major consuming countries, sees short-term demand rising. But many OPEC members are at their production capacity limits, and there are other problems. Iran’s exports are crimped by sanctions, for instance, while domestic turmoil is crippling Libyan output. But OPEC powerhouse Saudi Arabia has the ability to make up for any shortage.

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Air strikes hit Benghazi

Air strikes have hit three areas of the Libyan city of Benghazi, shortly after reports emerged of a ceasefire deal between former general Khalifa Haftar and a government crisis committee. The strikes on Tuesday took place in the western part of the city, which has been targeted in the past by troops loyal to Haftar.  Al Jazeera’s Stefanie Dekker, reporting from Tripoli, said that the airstrikes lasted for at least thirty minutes. A source close to the armed group Ansar al-Sharia told Al Jazeera that the group had given Haftar supporters 72 hours, ending Tuesday, to leave the Benina area of Benghazi, close to the airport. Earlier, sources in the Government Crisis Managing Committee, which includes tribal elders, the minister of justice and various brigades in Benghazi, told Al Jazeera that a truce deal had been reached with Haftar, a claim denied by Mohamed Hejazi, Haftar’s spokesperson. However, Reuters quoted Hejazi saying […]

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Hitting Bottom: The Maliki Scorecard in Iraq

Hitting Bottom: The Maliki Scorecard in Iraq Iraq is on the edge of civil war, and its election does not seem to offer any clear prospect of producing national unity or an effective leader. As a result, there is natural focus on Iraq’s growing violence and political divisions, but this is only part of the story. The Burke Chair has already addressed these issue in depth in a book length report called Iraq in Crisis which is available on the CSIS web site at http://csis.org/files/publication/Iraq%20Book_21_April_2014%20(reduced%20size).pdf .   Violence and politics, however, are only part of Iraq’s story. Anyone seeking to understand the outcome of the Iraqi election and the role Prime Minister Maliki has played to date also needs to understand the trends in governance and economics, and just how serious the other challenges Iraq faces really are. The Burke Chair has developed a summary report on these challenges […]

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Tanker loaded with Kurdish oil off Turkish coast

Maritime shipping data show an oil tanker, United Emblem, left the Turkish port of Ceyhan loaded with a cargo of oil taken from the Kurdish north of Iraq. Data show United Emblem , a Greek-flagged oil tanker, arrived Sunday at the Turkish seaport and left just over 24 hours later. It’s the second confirmed shipment of Kurdish oil since United Leadership left the Turkish port loaded with more than 1 million barrels in late May. As of Tuesday, United Emblem was headed west and was south of the Turkish peninsula of Teke. United Leadership is parked off the coast of Morocco. Authorities there told the vessel to leave its territorial waters earlier this week. Oil from the Kurdish north of Iraq was sent to storage tanks in Ceyhan before exports began in May. The central government in Baghdad has complained to international arbiters the exports are a violation of […]

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Militants Overrun Iraq's Second-Largest City as Government Forces Flee

The Iraqi government declared a state of emergency Tuesday as al Qaeda-linked militants from ISIS, or the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, violently seized control of Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city. Via The Foreign Bureau, WSJ’s global news update. BAGHDAD—Islamist insurgents seized control of Iraq’s second-largest city on Tuesday in a brazen military operation that underscored the weakness of the central government across vast swaths of the country. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki declared a nationwide "state of maximum preparedness" after government forces fled Mosul in disarray following four days of fighting. He asked parliament to declare a state of emergency. But he didn’t say whether military forces were mobilizing to retake the city, 220 miles north of the capital, Baghdad. By nightfall, the militants were still expanding their territorial conquests. Local security forces said the fighters had taken over territory in the neighboring province of Kirkuk to the east […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Militants Overrun Iraq’s Second-Largest City as Government Forces Flee

The Iraqi government declared a state of emergency Tuesday as al Qaeda-linked militants from ISIS, or the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, violently seized control of Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city. Via The Foreign Bureau, WSJ’s global news update. BAGHDAD—Islamist insurgents seized control of Iraq’s second-largest city on Tuesday in a brazen military operation that underscored the weakness of the central government across vast swaths of the country. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki declared a nationwide "state of maximum preparedness" after government forces fled Mosul in disarray following four days of fighting. He asked parliament to declare a state of emergency. But he didn’t say whether military forces were mobilizing to retake the city, 220 miles north of the capital, Baghdad. By nightfall, the militants were still expanding their territorial conquests. Local security forces said the fighters had taken over territory in the neighboring province of Kirkuk to the east […]

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Sunni Militants Drive Iraqi Army Out of Mosul

Sunni militants spilling over the border from Syria on Tuesday seized control of the northern city of Mosul, Iraq’s second largest, in the most stunning success yet in a rapidly widening insurgency that threatens to drag the region into war. Having consolidated control over Sunni-dominated Nineveh Province, armed gunmen were heading on the main road to Baghdad, Iraqi officials said, and had already taken over parts of Salahuddin Province. Thousands of civilians fled south toward Baghdad and east toward the autonomous region of Kurdistan, where security is maintained by a fiercely loyal army, the pesh merga. The Iraqi Army apparently crumbled in the face of the militant assault, as soldiers dropped their weapons, shed their uniforms for civilian clothes and blended in with the fleeing masses. The militants freed thousands of prisoners and took over military bases, police stations, banks and provincial headquarters, before raising the black […]

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Exhausted and Bereft, Iraqi Soldiers Quit Fight

The infantryman and his colleagues were already worn down after six months of fighting militants in western Iraq, men flush with weapons and zeal. Army commanders had no answer for the daily deadly ambushes and no broader strategy for prevailing in the longer war. The final straw was the death of a friend, killed two weeks ago by a sniper’s bullet. The infantryman, Bashar al-Halbousi, deserted, making the same choice as hundreds of other soldiers in his battalion, he said. “The state is weak,” Mr. Halbousi said. “This will be an endless battle.” After months of grinding conflict against a resurgent militant movement, the Iraqi Army is having its power blunted by a rise in desertions, turning the tide of the war and fragmenting an institution, trained and funded by the United States, that some hoped would provide Iraqis a common sense of citizenship. In a nation […]

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Iraq crisis: Islamists force 500,000 to flee Mosul

t "Vital areas" of the city of Mosul have been seized, Iraq’s prime minister said Continue reading the main story As many as 500,000 people have been forced to flee the Iraqi city of Mosul after Islamist militants effectively took control of it, the International Organization for Migration says. Troops were among those fleeing as hundreds of jihadists from the ISIS group overran the city and much of the surrounding province of Nineveh. ISIS has now reportedly taken Baiji, home to Iraq’s largest oil refinery. PM Nouri Maliki has asked parliament to declare a state of emergency. The US said the development showed ISIS was a threat to the entire region. ISIS – the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which is also known as ISIL – is an offshoot of al-Qaeda. It now controls considerable territory in […]

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ISIS closing in on Baiji and energy infrastructure

ISIS closing in on Baiji and energy infrastructure The al-Qaida splinter group Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) is moving on the Baiji refinery and other energy infrastructure, one facet of a coordinated campaign that has seen it take over the city of Mosul entirely while spreading thin remaining Iraqi security forces, many of which abandoned post in Mosul and other areas on Tuesday. Successfully taking over Baiji, Iraq’s largest and frequently attacked refinery, would be a harrowing coup for ISIS and its allied insurgent and tribal f… This content is for registered users. Please login to continue. If you are not a registered user, you may purchase a subscription or sign up for a free trial .

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple