445 articles
As of July 2018, the Ministry of Oil for Iraq has reported a 0.6% increase in oil exportation. The Ministry is attempting to increase the production and sale of gas and oil by outsourcing to local national companies rather than foreign ones; they claim that doing so has significantly reduced costs. Last week the Ministry […]
Just last week, Islamic State gunmen executed 20 Iraqi’s belonging to the Shamari tribe in the town of Baaj. The Islamic State is far from finished in the region and pockets of resistance exist within Iraq as small sleeper cells that are striking terror into civilians and security forces alike. Iraqi officials have warned the local […]
On Friday last week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed that his nation planned to reopen their consulates located in two of Iraq’s largest cities. The Mosul and Basra consulates have had their doors shut for quite some time now (approximately four years) but the move by Turkey may be in an effort to strengthen trade […]
The Iraqi Civil Aviation Authority has recognized the need to confront the flight ban by the Turkish government into the Iraqi-Kurdistan Sulaymaniyah International Airport. Sulaymaniyah provincial governor Haval Abubakr met with Iraq’s Civil Aviation Authority over the weekend to discuss the issue and seek assistance. Iraqi officials have agreed to bring up the issue with the Turkish […]
The Kurdistan Regional Government is working with the Ministry of Peshmerga and United States-led coalition to officially reform the Peshmerga into a unified fighting force, despite political differences. Acting Minister Karim Sinjari confirmed this to local media this week, saying that the 70th and 80th forces will eventually be joined with the Ministry of Peshmerga, forming […]
The Saladin Provincial Council, leaders of a region just north of Baghdad, have asked the Prime Minister of Iraq, Haider al-Abadi, to facilitate the withdrawal of the paramilitary Hashd al-Shaabi forces from the region. The head of the provincial council, Ahmed Abdulkarim, cautioned that, “The situation of Saladin province is unstable. Arms and other weaponry have spread […]
It has been discovered that an Islamic mullah who had sworn allegiance to the Islamic State in 2014 was, to some extent, behind the attack on the Kurdistan Regional Government’s headquarters in Erbil last month. The recording of Mullah Ismail Susayi confessing to his Islamic State connections was provided by the Kurdistan Region Security Council (KRSC) […]
The Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) sent a delegation to meet with Turkish parliament speaker (and former prime minister) Binali Yildirim this week to discuss the imprisonment of two Ministers of Parliament that represent the HDP. The two ministers, Leyla Guven and Enis Berberoglu, were jailed for terrorism-related charges despite having parliamentary immunity. The HDP released a post-meeting statement […]
Muqtada al-Sadr, Iraq’s parliamentary leader and former commander of the Mahdi Army militia, has put forth a list of requirements for Iraq’s next prime minister. Sadr’s Victory Coalition political party won the majority of votes, 54 in total, this past parliamentary election by appealing to the general public and the low-income majority of Shiite citizens. A […]
Iran has continued to dismiss United States President Donald Trump’s talk that a confrontation of some kind will be in the near future. After the United States made its dramatic withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal, the Iranian government has returned with threats. While President Trump has made the offer to discuss the situation “any time,” […]
On Monday the imprisoned Pastor Andrew Brunson, a U.S. citizen, made an appeal to the Turkish high court regarding his case. Brunson ran a Protestant church in Izmir and was arrested on terrorism-related charges in October 2016. Brunson, having spent almost two years in prison, was relocated from jail to house arrest last week. An appeal was submitted […]
In total the various Kurdish political parties have nominated a total of 24 Ministers of Parliament (MP) to return to office post-election. While many have claimed they do not wish to return to office, they have been nominated for the task yet again regardless. A total of six were nominated by the Patriotic Union of […]