Category: Iraq

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Erbil, the Iraqi Kurdish capital, today to make his case for national unity to the ethnic minority that may hold the only winning hand in the country’s sectarian turmoil. Kerry will meet with Massoud Barzani, president of the Kurdistan Regional Government, and other Kurdish leaders, bringing the same plea for cooperation he delivered yesterday to Shiite and Sunni politicians in Baghdad. In advance of Kerry’s arrival from Amman, Jordan, Barzani signaled yesterday that the “time is here” for the Kurds, a minority of 6.5 million, to decide on independence instead of what’s now a semi-autonomous state within Iraq . As fighting rages between extremists and Iraqi forces, the Kurds are in a position to be deal makers in political talks for a new government. “During the last 10 years, we did everything in our ability, we made every effort and show […]

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IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — The president of Iraq’s ethnic Kurdish region declared Tuesday that "we are facing a new reality and a new Iraq" as the country considers new leadership for its Shiite-led government as an immediate step to curb a Sunni insurgent rampage. The comments by Kurdish President Massoud Barzani came as he met with visiting U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who is pushing the central government in Baghdad to at least adopt new policies that would give more authority to Iraq’s minority Sunnis and Kurds. Kerry has repeatedly said that it’s up to Iraqis – not the U.S. or other nations – to select their leaders. But he also has noted bitterness and growing impatience among all of Iraq’s major sects and ethnic groups with the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Barzani told Kerry that Kurds are seeking "a solution for the crisis that we […]

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IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — The president of Iraq’s ethnic Kurdish region declared Tuesday that "we are facing a new reality and a new Iraq" as the country considers new leadership for its Shiite-led government as an immediate step to curb a Sunni insurgent rampage. The comments by Kurdish President Massoud Barzani came as he met with visiting U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who is pushing the central government in Baghdad to at least adopt new policies that would give more authority to Iraq’s minority Sunnis and Kurds. Kerry has repeatedly said that it’s up to Iraqis – not the U.S. or other nations – to select their leaders. But he also has noted bitterness and growing impatience among all of Iraq’s major sects and ethnic groups with the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Barzani told Kerry that Kurds are seeking "a solution for the crisis that we […]

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ERBIL, Iraq—The semiautonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq received close to $100 million for the first million barrels of oil it piped to Turkey and shipped to international markets, an official said Monday, marking a critical step in Kurdish efforts to become independent crude exporters. Buyers of oil from the Kurdistan Regional Government, or KRG, deposited $93 million of the $97 million owed on the first tanker of crude at Turkiye Halk Bankasi AS , Turkey’s state-owned lender known as Halkbank, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said Monday in Ankara. The payments came in phases and both Baghdad and Kurdish authorities have been notified about their receipt, Mr. Yildiz said. The first deposit for KRG oil exports comes as the regional authorities in Erbil face a significant budget squeeze. Iraq’s central government started cutting off payments to the KRG in January amid a dispute over the Kurds’ contested right […]

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ERBIL, Iraq — The Sunni militant extremists who have seized a broad area of Iraq extended their control on Monday to the country’s entire western frontier, having secured nearly all official border crossings with Syria and the only one with Jordan, giving them the semblance of the new independent state that they say they intend to create in the region. With the seizure of the Jordan crossing, which militants from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria first assaulted late Sunday night, the Iraqi military defenses crumpled, as they have in other battlegrounds in the western and northern parts of the country over the past two weeks. ISIS control of the Jordan border raised the risks that its insurgency could menace not just Syria and Iraq, but Jordan and Saudi Arabia, two important American allies. The border seizure came as Secretary of State John Kerry made an emergency visit […]

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From his modest office in the shrine city of Najaf, Iraq’s highest religious authority, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, leader of the country’s Shiite establishment, issued a call to arms asking his followers to join with the government military to stop the blitzkrieg by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. But one cleric, Moktada al-Sadr, who led a militia that fought the government and lost in 2008, decided instead that he too would challenge the state. Mr. Sadr revived his Mahdi Army, possibly one of the largest and most experienced battle groups in Iraq, and announced that under no circumstances would it be under the control of the government. His open challenge to Iraq’s Shiite establishment lays bare the latest in a series of cracks that are dividing the country’s three main ethnic groups, the Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds, as the Iraqi state comes unraveled. But […]

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Sectarian violence in Iraq on Monday showed both sides in the conflict at their brutal worst, as Iraqi police officers were reported to have killed scores of Sunni insurgent prisoners along a highway in the south, and militants in the north turned over the bodies of 15 Shiite civilians they had killed, including women and children, only to bomb the cemetery during their funerals, according to one account. In a third episode without clear sectarian links, a family of six, including three children, was found fatally shot in Tarmiya, a Sunni area in Baghdad Province north of the capital. There was no confirmation about who was behind their deaths. The killings of the Sunni prisoners, all of whom had been arrested on terrorism charges but had not been convicted, were reported near Hilla, a town south of Baghdad, and represented the second such episode in less than […]

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French oil company Total SA (TOT, FP.FR) has evacuated its two expatriates from Baghdad as a safety measure on concerns that the Iraqi capital could be targeted by militants led by the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, or ISIS. Total’s two expatriates were evacuated around a week ago, a spokesman for the company said. The decision echoes that of several other foreign oil and gas companies, which have moved to either repatriate their staff or their nonessential workers or at least stand ready to do so, as the ISIS offensive in northern Iraq has spread toward the south and several oil fields. Total has no operations in Iraq’s southern oil fields but has acquired interests in several blocs in Iraqi Kurdistan, which hasn’t been targeted by the militants. Asked whether the company had any workers in Iraqi Kurdistan and if so whether it was considering […]

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Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish government has successfully delivered a cargo of its oil to buyers for the first time–setting a precedent that could deepen a standoff with Baghdad. The challenge to Iraq’s central government–which opposes the Kurdish sales–comes as it is already battling a successful push by Sunni militants in the North of the country. The destination of the oil appears to be Israel–a move that would put the Middle East nation at odds with U.S.’s support for Baghdad. In a statement late Saturday, the Kurdish Regional Government said one million barrels of its oil piped through the Turkish port of Ceyhan "was safely delivered to the buyers." According to the Fleetmon shipping-tracking Website, a vessel loaded with Kurdistan oil transhipped its cargo to a second tanker that has now reached waters of the port of Ashkelon in Israel. It’s unclear if […]

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