Kurdish Policy Analysis

  Iraq has been cut off from trade via the Strait of Hormuz as the war with Iran has developed over the last two weeks. An oil and trade dispute between Baghdad and the autonomous  Kurdistan Regional  Government in northern Iraq is having ramifications for Baghdad and could also present larger ramifications for the region. Iraq  has been cut off from trade via the Strait of Hormuz as the war with Iran has developed over the last two weeks. One option for the country would be to export oil through the Kurdistan Region, which has a pipeline to Turkey. However, Baghdad has also sought to isolate and control the Kurdistan Region via a trade embargo at the border with Turkey. This is also important because many countries are trying to use pipelines and other means to get around the closure of the Strait of Hormuz . Saudi Arabia has similar challenges. As Baghdad seeks to pressure  Erbil , the dispute continues, which will likely harm the economy in Baghdad and have w...

  Deal between Baghdad and Erbil only way to overcome impasse and avert economic disaster, analysts and officials say. Iraq   can restart critical oil exports cut off by the Middle East conflict, if the central government can reach an agreement with a semi-autonomous region bordering Turkey, analysts and officials have told   The National . A deal between Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to ship crude through the northern Kirkuk fields to the Turkish port of Ceyhan would compensate for losses worth billions, caused by  deadly strikes  across the country and Iran's blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, they said. Iranian attacks on oil tankers in Iraq's southern Basra forced authorities to halt operations at all the country’s oil terminals earlier this week, as the deadly war pitting the  US and Israel against Iran  dragged Iraq into the equation. Iraq's crude oil production dropped to 1.4 million barrels per day (bpd), Oil Minister Hayan...

  With southern oil exports choked off by war, Baghdad cannot use its only backup pipeline route because of a fight with the KRG over customs revenue control. Iraq's only secondary pipeline export route remains almost entirely offline two weeks after the war in Iran began choke off oil flows from Basra Gulf, depriving the country from its main revenue source and setting off a widening crisis for the energy sector. 

By Dr. Pshtiwan Faraj The people of Basra region are complaining and demanding to know what is happening in Basra,; their eyes are looking at what has been achieved in the province of Kurdistan, of tangible development at the service, construction and urban levels. For nearly 16 years, the idea of ​​establishing the Basra region has been raised from time to time without being realized on the ground. In contrast, other alternative projects have been proposed by the central government in Baghdad, which have not been successful either and or translated into reality. These projects include Basra as the economic capital of Iraq, along with the project of the three oil-rich provinces of Basra, Dhi Qar and Maysan, but all of these proposals are used as pressure papers and nothing else. Activists who demand the establishment of an independent Basra region often take advantages of various political, social, athletic and sporting events in the region to announce their demands. They a...