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US Announces Fulbright Foreign Student Program

The United States Mission in Iraq is pleased to announce that it is now accepting applications for the 2014-2016 Fulbright Foreign Student Program. This prestigious and competitive scholarship program allows outstanding students worldwide to obtain master’s degrees at U.S. universities to further their academic and professional careers as well as to promote international cultural understanding. […]

Italy to Upgrade Diplomatic Presence in Erbil

President Masoud Barzani welcomed Italy’s new ambassador to Iraq Mr. Massimo Marotti in his office in Salahaddin today to discuss bilateral relations and explore ways to further strengthen ties. The meeting focused on the ongoing political challenges facing Iraq, relations between Italy and the Kurdistan Region, and the crisis in Syria. Ambassador Marotti said Italy […]

Zebari Chairs Follow-Up Meeting on Baghdad Summit

Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari has chaired the Ministerial Meeting of the Follow-up Commission on the implementation of decisions and commitments to Baghdad Summit in Cairo. The Commission includes its Troika of the Summit; Libya, Iraq, and Qatar, and Troika of the Ministerial Council; Kuwait, Lebanon, and Egypt. The meeting was present by Secretary General of […]

Three Years Down, One Year To Go

By Padraig O'Hannelly. What were you doing on this day three years ago? If you're Iraqi and were in the country at the time, the chances are that you were casting your vote in the general election, in which more than 6,500 candidates, representing 86 parties, competed for the 325 seats in parliament. It was […]

Iraq Wants to Buy $600m Cargo Scanners

By John Lee. The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) has announced that Iraq wants to buy  Rapiscan System Vehicles and associated products and services for scanning cargo, in a deal worth $600 million. The items to be purchased include: 90 M45 RAPISCAN Mobile Eagle High Energy Mobile System Vehicles; 40 M60 RAPISCAN Mobile Eagle […]

Genel Sees Pipeline Exports from Kurdistan Next Year

Genel Energy has said it expects to export oil by pipeline from its fields in Iraqi Kurdistan by 2014. The company's CFO, Julian Metherell (pictured), said: "We can expect by 2014 to be accessing the export markets from our major assets, whether that is through Baghdad controlled infrastructure or through Kurdistan." Genel posted full year revenues […]

Cellular Phone Chargers Used as IEDs

The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad warns U.S. citizens that there have recently been incidents of cellular phone chargers being used as Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) in Baghdad. The chargers were left in conspicuous areas on roads and, when found and plugged into an outlet, exploded. These incidents have been reported in the Iraqi news. There […]

IHEC Publishes Candidate List for Local Elections

By Reidar Visser. The following article was published 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. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq […]

PetroChina Considers Join Exxon at West Qurna-1

The Chairman of PetroChina has told Reuters that his company is willing to join Exxon Mobil in the 400,000-bpd West Qurna-1 oilfield project. Jiang Jiemin (pictured) told the news agency: "We are willing to jointly develop the project with Exxon Mobil. Exxon Mobil welcomed our participation and the Iraqi government also supports us joining the […]

Iraq to Cut Basra Crude Exports

By John Lee. Bloomberg reports that Iraq will ship 35 cargoes of crude oil from the Persian Gulf in March, six fewer than last month. About 59.7 million barrels of the Basrah Light blend are to be exported from the al-Basra Oil Terminal (ABOT), equating to 1.93 million bpd, compared with average daily shipments in February […]