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Libya’s War Rages but Eni Keeps Pumping Oil

ENLARGE Fighters from the Libya Dawn militia group after securing the perimeter of the Mellitah Oil & Gas terminal on the outskirts of Zwara in western Libya on Jan. 6. Photo: MAHMUD TURKIA/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES Italian energy giant Eni SpA has emerged in recent weeks as the only international oil company still pumping near capacity in war-torn Libya, helped by protection from militias and tribes secured by its local partners. Libya’s security risks have crippled the efforts of rival oil companies such as Total SA of France, Repsol SA of Spain and Marathon Oil of the U.S., which have said they have suspended production onshore in the North African country. The dangers have intensified in the past month with the rise of terrorist network Islamic State in Libya, a new risk in a nation that fractured after the 2011 ouster and death of dictator Moammar Gadhafi. Some of the […]

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Iraq Starts Emptying Mass Graves in Search for Cadets Killed by ISIS

Continue reading the main story Video Play Video|8:19 Surviving an ISIS Massacre Surviving an ISIS Massacre ISIS massacred hundreds of Iraqi military recruits in June 2014. Ali Hussein Kadhim survived. This is his improbable story. [Includes graphic images.] By Mike Shum, Greg Campbell, Adam B. Ellick and Mona El-Naggar on Publish Date September 3, 2014. Photo by Bryan Denton for The New York Times. BAGHDAD — Iraqi officials have begun exhuming bodies from a series of mass graves containing some of the nearly 1,700 Iraqi Air Force cadets massacred by the Islamic State in June. “We’re still digging but we don’t know how many graves there are yet,” Kamil Amin, the spokesman for the Iraqi Human Rights Ministry, said on Tuesday. “We’re expecting big numbers.” So far, he said, officials had found 11 mass graves, each containing dozens of bodies, all located in the sprawling complex of palaces in […]

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Fields retaken from IS still offline, under attack

Smoke rises from the Ajil oil field as Shia militiamen gather in al-Hadidiya, south of Tikrit, on March 6, 2015. (THAIER AL-SUDANI/Reuters) Recommend 2 people recommend this. Sign Up to see what your friends recommend. Persistent attacks are preventing Iraq from re-starting production at Ajil and Hamrin, two northern oil fields that were recently recaptured from the Islamic State (IS) militant group.The fields represent a small fraction of Iraq’s overall production capacity, but the inability of pro-government forces to establish security underscores the broader difficulty of resurrecting northern Iraq’s energy sector, which includes vital facilities such as the Baiji refinery and infrastructure like the …

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Iraq PM says will cooperate with Kurds to liberate Nineveh

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said the Baghdad government would work with Kurdish authorities to liberate the northern province of Nineveh from Islamic State militants. During his first visit to the Kurdistan region since becoming Prime Minister last year, Abadi said Baghdad and Erbil faced a common enemy and would improve ties to help confront the threat. "Our visit to Erbil today is to coordinate and cooperate on a joint plan to liberate the people of Nineveh," Abadi said at a joint news conference with Kurdish President Massoud Barzani on Monday. Abadi declined to lay out a timetable for the plan to retake Nineveh, of which Mosul is capital, in order not to lose the "element of surprise". The trip comes less than a week after Islamic State militants were driven out of the city of Tikrit by Iraqi forces including Shi’ite militia, backed by coalition […]

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Iraq: The lesser of two evils

Shia militias have helped fight Isis, but many worry they are pushing their own brand of sectarianism Iraqi security forces in Tikrit after pushing Isis out of the city with help from Shiite militiamen I t was a trip he took often, a 90-minute drive from his mansion on the outskirts of Babel province to the capital. But something went wrong around the time he was stopped at one of many checkpoints in southern Baghdad. Exactly what transpired remains unclear, but the night ended with Qassem Jenabi, a prominent Sunni tribal leader , his son Mohamed and their five bodyguards dead, their bullet-riddled bodies dumped next to their car. Nearly $7,000 in cash was untouched, and Mr Jenabi’s nephew, a member of Iraq’s parliament, was let go, as if the killers did not want the international attention that would come with murdering an elected official. “The militias did this,” […]

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A third of Republicans support Iran nuclear deal: Reuters/Ipsos poll

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Thirty-one percent of Republicans favor a new nuclear deal with Iran, creating a challenge for their party’s lawmakers who largely oppose the framework accord sealed between Tehran and world powers, a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed on Wednesday. Another 30 percent of Republicans oppose the pact, while 40 percent are not sure, according to the poll, which revealed a sharp split in the party as its leaders ramp up opposition to the deal championed by President Barack Obama, a Democrat. The White House has launched a broad effort to convince U.S. lawmakers and other critics to embrace the framework agreement reached last week between Iran, the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China. Many details remain to be worked out for a final deal to be completed by the end of June. Public support will be critical to the White House effort to sway skeptical members of […]

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Iran’s Establishment Closes Ranks in Support of Nuclear Accord

Photo A mural in Tehran depicting the Islamic Republic’s founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, right, the Basij paramilitary force and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Credit Vahid Salemi/Associated Press TEHRAN — Since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, Iranian hard-liners have been free to take to the streets and object to any form of compromise with the West, and particularly the United States. But when a conspicuously small group of hard-liners did so on Tuesday morning in front of the Parliament building, holding up placards and shouting slogans against the nuclear framework agreed to last week in Lausanne, Switzerland, Tehran’s Interior Ministry condemned the demonstration as illegal, because the protesters had failed to obtain a permit. There were also very few reporters. It was perhaps the first time that conservatives — in this case mostly young people genuinely disappointed over the compromises Iran has made to reach a nuclear agreement — seemed disconnected from […]

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Iranian Officials Travel to Beijing to Discuss Oil Deals

Top Iranian officials are traveling this week to Beijing to meet executives at one of China’s largest energy companies to discuss oil projects after a political agreement to eventually lift Western sanctions was struck, people familiar with the matter said. The meetings with Sinopec Group, a state-owned Chinese company, come as China is looking to secure its interests in Iran following a tentative agreement last week with the U.S. and European powers that could enable the return of major Western oil companies to the world’s fourth-largest oil patch. They are also among the first signs that foreign companies are moving to position themselves for Iran’s opening up to the world if sanctions over its nuclear program are lifted. Iran and the six major powers still must hammer out final details of the agreement by June 30 . The Chinese emerged as the last foreigners still willing to carry significant […]

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Iranian media calls for boycott of Saudi oil

Militants loyal to Yemen’s President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi take their positions in Taiz, Yemen. Iran’s Fars News Agency called for a boycott of oil from Saudi Arabia to protest Riyadh’s decision to launch a military offensive in neighboring Yemen. Photo by Anees Mahyoub/UPI TEHRAN, April 7 (UPI) — The international community should boycott oil from Saudi Arabia to rob the government in Riyadh of the will to keep fighting in Yemen, Iranian media said. Saudi Arabia in late March announced the start of a pan-Arab military offensive in Yemen dubbed Operation Decisive Storm. Riyadh said the offensive was meant to defend the government in Sanaa and to "prevent the Houthi militias from controlling the country by force." The operation pit Saudi Arabia, a Sunni-led country, against Shiite Iran, which is said to be backing the Houthi militia. An op-ed from the semi-official Fars News Agency in Iran called […]

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