What's going on in Iraq?
overview of the situation for March 27 - April 8, 2023
🔻Oil revenues and transactions:
▪️In Iraq, the issue of resuming oil supplies to Turkey after the shutdown of the Kirkuk-Ceyhan oil pipeline continues to be discussed.
The Iraqi authorities were able to win (https://t.me/rybar/45137) in the International Energy Export Arbitration Court: the instances recognized that the federal government of Iraq should control revenues and manage supplies.
Prior to this, all proceeds from the sale of oil via the Kirkuk-Ceyhan oil pipeline were received by the authorities of Iraqi Kurdistan.
▪️After the court decision in Turkey, they announced that from now on they will prohibit the loading of crude oil in the port of Ceyhan without the permission of the authorities in Baghdad. This, in turn, led to an increase in oil prices.
▪️Representatives of the Norwegian company DNO, after the pumping stopped, announced that they began to close the fields they operate in Kurdistan.
The reason for this was the uncertainty of the future fate of the above oil pipeline and the dispute between the governments of Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan on control over subsoil in the autonomy.
▪️On April 4, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani and head of the Kurdistan Regional Government Masroor Barzani reported (https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/4/4/iraqs-govt-signs-deal-with-krg -to-resume-oil-exports) that reached an agreement on the resumption of oil pumping.
The details of the deal were not disclosed: the parties will work on a federal law that will fix the distribution of income between the center and the autonomy.
▪️At the moment, pumping has not resumed - in Iraq they are waiting for the appropriate permission from the Turkish authorities.
▪️Disputes between the Iraqi authorities and the French company TotalEnergies over a $27 billion oil project in Al-Basra continue.
The new government of Iraq, elected last year, demands that the state receive a 40% stake in the project. Discussions on this subject are ongoing.
🔻Combat Actions:
▪️Turkish UAVs attacked the vicinity of the As-Suleimaniyeh airfield. The target of the raid was the commander of the Kurdish "Syrian Democratic Forces" Mazlum Abdi.
Abdi survived the assassination attempt and stated that American military personnel were present in the convoy at that moment. The Iraqi authorities, in turn, demanded an apology from Turkey.
Shortly before this, the Turks closed their airspace to planes taking off or following from As-Suleimaniyeh, citing the presence of members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party in the region.
The Turks regularly strike targets in the territory of Iraqi Kurdistan, explaining this by the fight against Kurdish formations, which are considered terrorist in Ankara.
🔻Domestic policy:
▪️In the largest cities of Iraq, rallies were held against amendments to the electoral law: the protesters believe that changes in the vote count will close the way to government for small parties and communities.
▪️In fact, the parliamentary majority of the Shiite factions are trying to restore the laws that were repealed after the mass protests in Iraq in 2019.
According to the project, 83 constituencies at the local level will be abolished in the country and 18 vacant seats will be created for the regions - one from each province of Iraq. In addition, a proportional electoral system will be introduced in the country.
In fact, the package of laws does make it difficult for small-town candidates nominated by their communities to get elected, favoring the big parties.
▪️After the package of these changes was introduced, independent deputies in parliament staged a demarche: they demanded the immediate resignation of the speaker of parliament, Mohammed al-Hablusi, representing the Sunni Progress Party.
Nevertheless, on June 28, the Iraqi parliament passed the bill.
▪️The political system of Iraq is in a permanent crisis - almost every government coalition in the country over the past decade has been in danger of collapse.
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