Iraq tightens grip on autonomous Kurdish region
Iraq is using a period of relative stability to assert more control over the oil-rich autonomous Kurdistan region that has long had fraught relations with federal authorities, analysts and politicians…
Petrol crisis bites in Iraq’s Kurdish region
The shutdown of Iraq's biggest refinery, roads blocked by fighting, and skyrocketing demand have created the worst oil crisis in years in the country's autonomous Kurdish region. At petrol stations…
Kurdish oil smuggling to Iran flourishes
Heading for Turkey to the north and Iran to the east, hundreds of oil tankers snake each day from near Kurdistan’s capital Erbil, clogging the Iraqi region’s often winding and…
Iraq seeks role as mediator with regional Summit
After decades of conflict, Iraq will pitch itself as a regional mediator as it hosts a leaders’ summit this week — despite foreign influence on its territory and a grinding…
A post- Soleimani region
Politics in the Middle East has taken an ugly turn after the assassination of top Iranian military commander General Qassem Soleimani at the hands of the US. Iran responded quickly…
Attacks on major Iraqi gasfield drive out US contractors
A series of rocket attacks on a gasfield in northern Iraq has sent the US contractors working on its expansion packing, dealing a blow to the Kurdish region’s hopes of…
Irked US squeezes Iraq with cash delays, short waivers
Irked by Iraq's close ties to neighbouring Iran, Washington has begun following through on threats to squeeze Baghdad's fragile economy with delays to crucial cash deliveries and shortened sanctions waivers.…
Iraq’s Sinjar caught in new tug-of-war
Nearly six years since Iraq’s Sinjar region was recaptured from jihadists, a tangled web of geopolitical tensions risks sparking a new conflict that could prolong the dire situation of minority…
Kirkuk key
Iraq’s Kirkuk province has long been identified as a fulcrum for political and ethnic tensions, with the potential to make or break national reconciliation efforts between Kurds, Arabs and Turkmen.…
Iraq’s Mosul strains to revive manufacturing past
Its wool could once be found in French marketplaces and its cement as far away as Singapore. But after years of fighting, Iraq’s Mosul has yet to regain its former…
