BAGHDAD: The flashpoint in the independence stand-off between the Kurdistan Region and the Iraqi government shifted to Kirkuk on Tuesday, as Baghdad moved to take control of the area’s lucrative oil wells.
The Kurdistan Regional Government exports 550,000 barrels of Iraqi oil per day through a pipeline linking Kirkuk to Ceyhan in Turkey, of which 400,000 barrels come from Kirkuk. If Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi’s government took control of the oil it would deprive the KRG of about 75 percent of its daily revenue, and separate the Kurds from the most valuable part of their proposed independent state.
“Baghdad intends to regain its legal and constitutional role in Kirkuk and all the nearby disputed areas, including the oil fields,” Abbas Al-Bayati, an Iraqi politician who is close to Al-Abadi, told Arab News. “We, as legislative and executive authorities, are working to regain control of those areas.”
A senior security official told Arab News: “The situation is very cloudy and anything is possible relating to Kirkuk, but we know that the government wants to secure the oilfields.
“It is an open area. There will be no need for large numbers of troops; actually the operation can be carried out by airborne forces.”
Kirkuk, the fifth Iraqi city in terms of population, is a mixed area. Only Basra has larger oilfields. The KRG seized control of the city and its oil wells in the summer of 2014, when the Iraqi army fled in the face of an onslaught by Daesh militants.
On Tuesday, Iraq stopped selling dollars to leading banks in Kurdistan and banned foreign currency transfers to the autonomous region.
The financial sanctions follow a ban on direct international air travel to the region imposed by the central government on Friday.
Iraq’s central bank informed the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) that it would stop selling dollars to four major Kurdish banks and stop all foreign currency transfers to the region, banking and government sources told Reuters.
“The condition for ending the dollar sale prohibition is to have the Kurdish banks under the central bank’s control,” an Iraqi official told Reuters.
Meanwhile, Kurdistan announced on Tuesday it was calling presidential and parliamentary elections for Nov. 1.
The November polls are for the Parliament and presidency of the region, not for an independent state, said a report by Reuters.
Kurds voted for independence last month in a controversial referendum in the Kurdistan Region and the disputed areas, including Kirkuk, seized by the peshmergas.
The Iraqi Parliament views the referendum as an illegal and unconstitutional threat to Iraq’s unity and integrity, and has approved punitive measures against the Kurdistan Region and Kurdish leaders, including regaining control of the disputed areas and the oil wells in Kirkuk.
Thousands of Iraqi security forces, including Shiite paramilitaries, are taking part in a major military operation to dislodge Daesh militants from Hawija, a town in Kirkuk province 45km west of the city. The campaign was launched only a day before the referendum, and many view it as a pretext by Al-Abadi to deploy more troops near Kirkuk.
Military sources told Arab News said that not all the Iraqi troops near Kirkuk were taking part in the fighting. Asa’ib Ahl Al-Haq, a prominent Shiite armed faction supporting the Iraqi government in the fight against Daesh, was assigned by Al-Abadi to be ready to move to secure the oilfields.
“The decision was made (by the Parliament and the government), (and) the authority of the federal government has to be imposed in all the disputed areas, including Kirkuk,” Asa’ib spokesman Na’aim Al-Abodi told Arab News. “There are large numbers of troops near Kirkuk to participate in the battle to retake Hawija,” he said, and any “childish or reckless act” by Kurdish leaders “will have serious consequences.”
Baghdad wants the referendum to be annulled as the main condition for talks with Irbil. The KRG said on Tuesday it was not authorized to do so.
“Cancelling the results of the referendum would not be as easy as officials in Baghdad think,” a spokesman said. “It related to the people of Kurdistan, and those people have decided what they want pertaining to this issue.”
The KRG has deployed more Kurdish troops in Kirkuk over the past two weeks. On Monday, Al-Abadi warned of the consequences of such “military mobilization procedures,” which he described as “risky and not acceptable.”
Al-Abadi asked Kurdish troops to withdraw beyond the areas where they were deployed before Oct. 18, 2016, before military operations to recapture Nineveh. “Imposing reality by force in the disputed areas is rejected,” he said.
New Kurdish flashpoint as Baghdad eyes Kirkuk’s oil
New Kurdish flashpoint as Baghdad eyes Kirkuk’s oil
US presses missile issue as new Iran talks to open in Geneva
- New round of negotiations in Geneva comes after the US carried out a massive military build-up in the region
- Iran’s president reiterates Tehran is not seeking nuclear weapons in line with policy
GENEVA: The United States and Iran are set to hold indirect talks in Switzerland on Thursday aiming to strike a deal to avert fresh conflict and bring an end to weeks of threats.
The new round of negotiations in Geneva comes after the US carried out a massive military build-up in the region and President Donald Trump repeatedly threatened to strike Iran if a deal is not reached.
In his State of the Union address on Tuesday, Trump accused Iran of “pursuing sinister nuclear ambitions.”
He also claimed Tehran had “already developed missiles that can threaten Europe and our bases overseas, and they’re working to build missiles that will soon reach the United States of America.”
The Iranian foreign ministry called these claims “big lies.”
Iran president says ahead of US talks not seeking nuclear weapon ‘at all’
TEHRAN: Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian reiterated on Thursday that Tehran was not seeking nuclear weapons in line with the policy set by the country’s supreme leader.
“Our Supreme Leader has already stated that we will not have nuclear weapons at all,” Pezeshkian said in a speech.
“Even if I wanted to move in that direction, I could not — from a doctrinal standpoint, I would not be permitted.” — AFP
The maximum range of Iran’s missiles is 2,000 kilometers according to what Tehran has publicly disclosed. However the US Congressional Research Service estimates they top out at about 3,000 kilometers — less than a third of the distance to the continental United States.
The dispute between the countries mostly revolves around Iran’s nuclear program, which the West believes is aimed at building an atomic bomb but Tehran insists is peaceful.
However the US has also been pushing to discuss Iran’s ballistic missile program, as well as Tehran’s support for armed groups hostile toward Israel.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that Iran must also negotiate on its missile program, calling Tehran’s refusal to discuss ballistic weapons “a big, big problem” on the eve of the talks.
He followed up by saying “the president wants diplomatic solutions.”
Iran has taken anything beyond the nuclear issue off the negotiating table and has demanded that the US sanctions crippling its economy be part of any agreement.
‘Neither war nor peace’
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Wednesday he had a “favorable outlook for the negotiations” that could finally “move beyond this ‘neither war nor peace’ situation.”
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who is leading the Iranian delegation at the talks, has called them “a historic opportunity,” adding that a deal was “within reach.”
In a foreign ministry statement that followed a meeting with his Oman counterpart, Araghchi said the success of the US negotiations depend “on the seriousness of the other side and its avoidance of contradictory behavior and positions.”
The US will be represented by envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who is married to Trump’s daughter Ivanka.
The two countries held talks earlier this month in Oman, which is mediating the negotiations, then gathered for a second round in Geneva last week.
A previous attempt at negotiations collapsed when Israel launched surprise strikes on Iran last June, beginning a 12-day war that Washington briefly joined to bomb Iranian nuclear sites.
In January, fresh tensions between the US and Iran emerged after Tehran engaged in a bloody crackdown on widespread protests that have posed one of the greatest challenges to the Islamic republic since its inception.
Trump has threatened several times to intervene to “help” the Iranian people.
Emile Hokayem, senior fellow for Middle East security at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said that “the region seems to expect a war at this point.”
In January, there was “a big push by a number of Middle Eastern states to convince the US not to” strike Iran.
“But there’s a lot of apprehension at this point, because the expectation is that this time” a war would be “bigger” than the one in June.
Tehran residents who spoke to AFP were divided as to whether there would be renewed conflict.
Homemaker Tayebeh noted that Trump had “said that war would be very bad for Iran.”
“There would be famine and people would suffer a lot. People are suffering now, but at least with war, our fate might be clear,” the 60-year-old said.
