Overview Levels of violence are still higher in Iraq than in January and February, but conditions did not significantly worsen over the past week. There was a decline in the number of violent protests taking place countrywide although there was also a rise in bomb attacks, particularly in Baghdad. The northern city of Mosul saw a […]
Iraq’s State of Law Coalition, led by Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki, has reportedly proposed the head of the rival Iraqiya bloc, Iyad Allawi, to run for the position of Secretary General of the Arab League following Amr Moussa’s resignation. Moussa will stand down in order to run for the presidency of Egypt. The Iraqiya […]
Iraq’s commercial attaché in Egypt said on Monday that the Arab League has set a 2012 deadline for the completion of a unified customs table in preparation for the 2015 launch of the Arab Customs Union. “The customs tables include all the goods that are traded in the world, and therefore rerquire enormous effort,” Ali […]
The commander of Iraq's rapid response force has been arrested on suspicion of corruption. According to a report from Reuters, Brigadier General Numan Dakhil was caught during a sting operation in which he was filmed taking a $50,000 bribe from a contractor. Sabah al-Saedi, a member of the Integrity Committee, said that Brigadier General Numan […]
Reuters reports that France's grain export lobby has invited an Iraqi delegation to visit the country as it tries to break into what has become one of the world's major wheat import markets. The move followed the signing last year of a letter of intent between France Export Cereales and Iraq's grain board on establishing […]
Oil giant Shell hopes its plan to use the huge amount of associated gas expected to come from Iraq's oil output growth over the next decade will be approved soon, the company's chief executive Peter Voser said on Tuesday According to the report from Reuters, he did not clarify what he meant by 'soon'. "We […]
France Telecom-Orange and its partner Agility, a leading logistics company, have announced a binding agreement on Monday with the shareholders of Korek Telecom to acquire a 44% stake in the Iraqi mobile operator. France Telecom-Orange will contribute its marketing, commercial and technical expertise to reinforce Korek Telecom's leading position in the Kurdistan region of Iraq […]
Iraq’s Oil Ministry has completed repairs to the damaged oil pipeline carrying crude from north Iraq’s Kirkuk fields through Turkey, and pumping resumed after mid-night on Tuesday morning, the Oil Ministry’s official spokesman has confirmed. “The Oil Ministry has completed repairs in the damaged Iraqi-Turkish oil pipeline, exporting crude oil to the Turkish Ceyhan terminal […]
Cordiant Capital, the Montreal based fund manager that specialises in loans to emerging markets, has committed $50 million to fund the expansion of Iraq’s mobile phone network. Mobile penetration in Iraq is estimated at just 77%, lagging far behind most of its neighbouring countries where penetration rates are virtually 100%. The loan is part of […]
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) have signed their Country Programme Action Plans for their respective 2011-2014 Programmes of Cooperation with the Government of Iraq. The signings endorse the key results the agencies will deliver over the next four years in support of the […]
The following article was published on Monday by Reidar Visser, an historian of Iraq educated at the University of Oxford and currently based at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs. It is reproduced here with the author’s permission. The opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq […]
Angolan oil company Sonangol started work on Thursday at the Najma [Najmah] and Qaiyara [Qaiyarah] oil fields in Ninewa, and it will start to dig wells in April, according to a report from Aswat al-Iraq. In the second licensing round in 2009, Sonangol was the only company to submit bids for these fields. In both […]
