The Kurdistan Regional Government is for the seventh year running attending the annual conferences of the three main British political parties. This week Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman, the Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) Representative to the UK, attended the Liberal Democrats party conference in Birmingham. The Liberal Democrats have been in government for over a year […]
Students from various universities in Germany visited the Kurdistan Region recently as part of a fact finding mission. The visit by 14 students was organised by the Kurdistan Students Union in collaboration with Middle East Excursion (MEE), a project that aims to improve links between the Middle East and the international community, particularly with Germany. […]
Aiming to play their role in the transformation of Kurdistan into one of the most go-ahead regions of the Middle East, large numbers of students from the Kurdistan Region have been flocking to UK universities, backed by a scholarship programme. The University of Huddersfield has enrolled 30 Kurds – for courses that range from computer […]
Levels of violence rose in Iraq over the past week. Conditions are still quieter than July and June but they have been gradually worsening over the course of September. Last week saw a series of brutal attacks, mainly in the central region, affecting Baghdad and the provinces of Anbar and Babil. Mosul in the north […]
DNO International today [Wednesday] received a second payment of USD 60 million from the Kurdistan Regional Government in respect of oil exports from the Tawke field operated by the Company in northern Iraq. A first payment of USD 103.7 million was received in June 2011. The Company had previously reported temporary reductions in production from […]
As part of the Kurdistan Regional Government’s ongoing transparency initiative, the Ministry of Natural Resources is putting all signed production sharing contracts (PSCs) for oil and gas in the Kurdistan Region into the public domain. The move, announced today by Minister of Natural Resources Ashti Hawrami, means that the PSCs, their attachments and amendments are […]
The new head of the European Union Delegation to Iraq, Ambassador Jana Hybášková, paid her first visit to the Kurdistan Region to discuss political and economic ties. In a meeting with Kurdistan Region President Masoud Barzani, recent developments, the current programs and role of the EU in Iraq, and the relationship between the Kurdistan Regional […]
Following reports that the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) had suspended oil exports through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline, the KRG has issued the following statement: The Ministry of Natural Resources of the Kurdistan Regional Government would like to state that there has been no policy decision for suspending oil exports from Kurdistan via the Iraq-Turkey pipeline. Over […]
The Kurdistan Region Presidency (KRP) issued a statement on Sunday on the Iraqi Council of Ministers’ approval of a draft federal hydrocarbons law. The following is a translation from the original Arabic: Following six years without a federal oil policy; the unjustified failure to implement political agreements; the clear avoidance of the ratification of a […]
As an Iraq security analyst I often find that I am writing at length about violence, pain and causes for concern. However, for this blog entry I would like to make what I hope is a welcome exception. I regularly write about how violence has escalated in the north of Iraq, usually in relation to […]
Closer trade and political ties were forged this week between Kurdistan and Northern Ireland during a visit to Belfast by a Kurdish business delegation led by two ministers. Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Trade and Industry Minister Sinan Celebi, Municipalities and Tourism Minister Samir Abdullah and several KRG officials met with Northern Ireland's Enterprise, Trade and […]
A ministerial-led delegation of business leaders from the Kurdistan Region in Iraq this week visited Edinburgh, where they met Scottish ministers, members of parliament and business organisations who all agreed the two nations should strengthen their ties. Trade and Industry Minister Sinan Çelebi and Municipalities and Tourism Minister Samir Abdullah Mustafa discussed tourism, the trading […]
