Kurdish Policy Analysis

Kurdistan tried to stay neutral. Now it’s under missile attack ERBIL, Kurdistan Region, March 24  — Six Iranian ballistic missile strike on a Peshmerga base in Erbil province killed six fighters and wounded 30 others early Tuesday, according to the Kurdistan Region’s Peshmerga Ministry, marking a dangerous escalation after days of drone and missile attacks. In an official statement , the ministry said the casualties resulted from “Iranian ballistic missiles” striking its Area Command One headquarters in the Soran administration of Erbil province. Six Kurdistan  Regional Government  Peshmerga  were killed early on Tuesday when missiles targeted their base. The missiles were likely fired by Iran or Iranian proxies in Iraq. Iran has a network of  Iranian-backed militias in Iraq.  These groups nominally come under government control as paramilitaries of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF). They are also called Hashd al-Sha’abi. Iran and its  proxies ...

  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. 

     ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Baghdad is in talks with Erbil to export some of Kirkuk’s oil through the Kurdistan Region’s pipelines with Turkey, Iraq’s oil minister said Saturday, while a senior Kurdish official said that the federal government must lift the trade embargo on the Region before an agreement can be reached.    Iraqi oil minister Hayyan Abdul Ghani told The New Region that federal government is in talks with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to transfer oil from the Region’s pipelines to    Kirkuk’s Ceyhan pipeline, which flows into Turkey, to resume exports from the key conduit.   Since the US and Israel launched their military campaign against Iran in late February, Tehran in retaliation has targeted neighbouring countries and shut the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway responsible for one fifth of the world’s oil.    Iraq has been severely affected by the disruption in oil transport through the Gulf.   ...