Author Archive | Bob Tollast

Kurds Call to Recognize Yazidi Genocide

By Patrick Schmidt.  The Independent Human Rights Committee of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) have made public their attempts to get the international community to recognize the crimes committed against Yazidi minorities. The spokesman of Independent Human Rights Committee, Mohammed Gomashini, noted: “Our committee started to attempt recognition of IS crimes against Kurdish Yazidi people […]

US Deploys More Advisors to Iraq

By Patrick Schmidt. Defence secretary Chuck Hagel has announced that additional military advisors are being deployed to Iraq. On Tuesday, an additional 130 American military advisers arrived in the country. The staff are tasked with accessing the ongoing humanitarian crisis taking place in the north of the country. This announcement comes almost a week after […]

US arming Kurdish forces

By Patrick Schmidt. Following recent gains of Kurdish security forces, in addition to a recent setback in Jalawla in northern Diyala, American officials have hinted that various government agencies have begun supplying Kurdistan with weapons to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). To date, America has mostly focused its attention on […]

Oil Prices in Flux During Crisis

By Patrick Schmidt. Crude oil reached $105 dollars per barrel late last week despite the ongoing crisis and advance of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). The increase came after a period of unusually low oil prices in the global market. Oil has fallen over $10 dollars over the past two months […]

Axeon to Refuse Kurdish Crude

By Patrick Schmidt. On Monday, August 11, Axeon Specialty Products announced that they would no longer accept any shipments of crude oil from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). The tanker Minerva Joy arrived at a New Jersey port with the intention of delivering their cargo to Axeon; however, the tanker has not offloaded any of […]

Maliki contests Abadi Nomination

By John Lee. Meeting an extended deadline, Iraqi President Fouad Massoum has nominated a PM from the State of Law bloc, the largest coalition which therefore has the constitutional right to name the next Iraqi PM. But it was not Nouri-al-Maliki. Observers are now waiting to see what action, if any, Maliki might take to […]

Petroceltic: KRG Operations Update

By John Lee. Multinational oil and gas exploration and production firm Petroceltic International have announced an update for their ongoing operations in the Kurdish region of Iraq. They note that some precautions are being taken and the current crisis is being closely watched. The company also have operations across the Middle East-North Africa region (MENA) […]

Situation complex as Maliki digs in

By John Lee. On Sunday at midnight, Iraq's embattled PM Nouri al-Maliki issued a defiant speech claiming his constitutional right to remain at the helm of his crisis hit country. Tellingly, he warned his political foes they were effectively with the terrorists, and the speech was described by one Iraq analyst on twitter as akin […]

KRG Forces Push Back ISIS

By John Lee. As Barack Obama pledges to send more security assistance, including arms, advisers and possibly more air strikes to the KRG, The Wall Street Journal has reported renewed confidence displayed by KRG aligned forces. The famed Kurdish Peshmerga, no strangers to combat having once resisted Saddam's forces, have reportedly re-taken the villages of Gwair (north […]

Defying Daash in Karbala and Baghdad

The following article features an interview with Mantid International CEO Ginger Cruz. Robert Tollast’s opinions expressed in the article do not necessarily represent the views of Mantid International, nor do the opinions expressed here necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News. The vast majority of Iraqis, Shi'a, Kurd and Sunni, are preparing themselves to […]