Iraq

QatarEnergy, the Gulf country's state-run petroleum firm, said Wednesday it has agreed to buy a 25 per cent stake in a massive gas project in Iraq, marking the rare entry of a major producer into a market that Western firms have pulled back from in recent years. The Gas Growth Integrated Project, launched by French oil giant Total in 2021, aims to develop facilities to recover natural gas from several oil fields in southern Iraq. That's where it is currently being flared when the natural gas released through oil production is burned and released into the atmosphere. The project also aims to treat seawater for injection into oil reservoirs to boost production. Total maintains a 45 per cent share of the project, while Iraq's Basra Oil Company owns 30 per cent. QatarEnergies said the total investment in the project would be around USD 10 billion. We are pleased to be part of this significant development, which is important for Iraq's energy sector, Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, the Minister

The latest amendments to the election law reduced the number of electoral districts from 83 countrywide in the previous 2021 elections to one electoral district for each of Iraq's 18 provinces

The National Security Advisors of India and Iraq have agreed to enhance defence cooperation and counter-terrorism efforts and strengthen security linkages between the two countries, officials said on Friday. National Security Adviser of Iraq Qasem Al-Araji is visiting India between March 22 and 25 at the invitation of NSA Ajit Doval. The visit of the Iraqi NSA is the first cabinet minister-level visit from Iraq to India in the last seven years, the officials pointed out. Qasem Al-Araji was earlier the minister of interior from 2016 to 2018. He has been the NSA since July 2020. During the visit, both the NSAs had extensive dialogue on a vast area of mutual interest. Both sides discussed various aspects of ongoing bilateral cooperation. They agreed to enhance defence cooperation, counter-terrorism efforts and strengthen security linkages. They also exchanged views on the recent developments in their respective regions, the officials said. During the visit, the Iraqi NSA visited Bha

The Senate took a first step Thursday toward repealing two measures that give open-ended approval for military action in Iraq, pushing to end that authority as the United States marks the 20th anniversary of the Iraq War. Senators voted 68-27 to move forward on legislation that would repeal the 2002 measure that greenlighted the March 2003 invasion of Iraq and also a 1991 measure that sanctioned the U.S.-led Gulf War to expel Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's forces from Kuwait. Nineteen Republicans joined Democrats in supporting the repeal. The bipartisan effort comes as lawmakers in both parties are increasingly seeking to claw back congressional powers over U.S. military strikes and deployments, arguing that the war authorizations are no longer necessary and subject to misuse if they are left on the books. President Joe Biden has backed the push, and the White House issued a statement Thursday in support. "Repeal of these authorizations would have no impact on current U.S. military .

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The Iraqi Ministry of Planning has said that the poverty rate in the country was 25 per cent in 2022

Over the past months, Iraqi security forces had conducted operations against extremist militants to crack down on their intensified activities

India's oil imports from Russia rose for the fifth straight month, totaling 908,000 barrels per day (bpd) in November, up 4% from October, the data showed

Evidence collected in Iraq strengthens preliminary findings that Islamic State extremists committed crimes against humanity and war crimes against the Christian community after it seized about a third of the country in 2014, a UN investigative team said in a report circulated on Thursday. The report to the UN Security Council said crimes included forcibly transferring and persecuting Christians, seizing their property, engaging in sexual violence, enslavement and other inhumane acts, such as forced conversions and destruction of cultural and religious sites. In addition, the team said it has identified leaders and prominent members of the Islamic State extremist group who participated in the attack and takeover of three predominantly Christian towns in the Nineveh plains north of Iraq's second largest city, Mosul, in July and August 2014 -- Hamdaniyah, Karamlays and Bartella. It also started collecting evidence on crimes committed against the Christian community in Mosul. Islamic .

Iraq's government said on Sunday it will recover part of nearly USD 2.5 billion in funds embezzled from the country's tax authority in a massive scheme involving a network of businesses and officials. Approximately 182 billion Iraqi dinars, or USD 125 million, of the stolen sum will be recovered through the seizure of properties and assets belonging to a well-connected businessman complicit in the corruption scheme, Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani's office said in a statement. The amount retrieved was disbursed to Noor Zuhair Jassim, a businessman who was arrested in connection to the scheme along with officials from the government tax authority for withdrawing funds from a tax deposit account between September 2021 to August 2022. Al-Sudani stressed the ongoing investigation would not spare anyone involved in the scheme, and the government is working to recover the full amount stolen. Jassim confessed to holding the embezzled sum, the statement added. Al-Sudani also said th

Despite losing its place to Russia in India, the world's third biggest oil importer, the kingdom is confident it holds the cards for crude supplies in the long term

The Iranian Ambassador to Iraq has denied any Iranian military deployment toward Iraqi borders, the IRIB news agency reported

Turkey launched airstrikes over northern regions of Syria and Iraq, the Turkish Defence Ministry said o Sunday, targeting Kurdish groups that Ankara holds responsible for last week's bomb attack in Istanbul. Warplanes attacked bases of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, and the Syrian People's Protection Units, or YPG, the ministry said in a statement, which was accompanied by images of F-16 jets taking off and footage of a strike from an aerial drone. There was no immediate comment from either group. The ministry cited Turkey's right to self defense under Article 51 of the United Nations Charter in launching an operation it called Claw-Sword late on Saturday. It said it was targeting areas used as a base by terrorists in their attacks on our country. Turkey said it was seeking to prevent attacks, secure its southern border and destroy terrorism at its source. The airstrikes came after a bomb rocked a bustling avenue in the heart of Istanbul on November 13, killing six

Turkey launched airstrikes over northern regions of Syria and Iraq, the Turkish Defence Ministry said on Sunday, targeting Kurdish groups that Ankara holds responsible for last week's bomb attack in Istanbul. Warplanes attacked bases of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, and the Syrian People's Protection Units, or YPG, the ministry said in a statement, which was accompanied by images of F-16 jets taking off and footage of a strike from an aerial drone. There was no immediate comment from either group. The ministry cited Turkey's right to self defence under Article 51 of the United Nations Charter in launching an operation it called Claw-Sword late on Saturday night. It said it was targeting areas used as a base by terrorists in their attacks on our country. Turkey said it was seeking to prevent attacks, secure its southern border and destroy terrorism at its source. The airstrikes came after a bomb rocked a bustling avenue in the heart of Istanbul on November 13, kil

More than two dozen people were injured, including the head of Iraq's civil defence directorate, when a commercial building in the capital caught fire and then collapsed Sunday, authorities and the state news agency reported. The official Iraqi News Agency said the civil defence director, Maj. Gen. Kadhim Bohan, and some firefighters were were among those injured when the burning building collapsed. No deaths were reported. No information was immediately available on the cause of the blaze. Brig. Gen. Qusai Younis, director of civil defense for the Al-Rusafa district of Baghdad, told The Associated Press that at least 28 people had been injured. He said two of the three stories in the building, which contained warehouses storing flammable materials such as perfume, collapsed due to the fire. The civil defense announced late Sunday evening that the fire had been fully extinguished and first responders were searching for missing people at the scene. On Oct. 29, a gas tanker explode

The average price for Iraqi crude oil in October was 88.31 dollars per barrel, the Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday, citing statistics from the State Organisation for Marketing of Oil.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has said Tehran will not tolerate the continued presence of "armed terrorists" in Iraq's Kurdistan region

The Indian football team went down 2-4 against Iraq in its opening fixture of the AFC U-20 Championship Group H qualifiers here. The first goal of the match came as early as in the second minute on Friday, as Iraq scored through Abdulrazzaq Qasim's curling effort with the outside of his boot. India looked to respond immediately, as both Gurkirat Singh and Taison Singh created danger repeatedly for the rival defence within a span of few minutes but were brought down with fouls. The pressure paid off in the 22nd minute eventually as Gurkirat scored with a timely shot, after Vibin Mohanan played in Taison, who laid it on a plate for the forward. Gurkirat turned from scorer to provider in the 33rd minute as he essayed a fine through pass, with Maheson Singh applying the finishing touch with a dink over the goalkeeper. The Indians went into the breather with the lead, with Zahid Bukhari denying efforts from Ashar Ali and Abbood Rabah, and Amandeep stopping Hayder Tofee in his tracks wi

Iraqi lawmakers have elected Abdul Latif Rashid as the new President of Iraq, marking a crucial step toward forming a new government for the country, the parliament said

The lawmakers of Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region have voted to extend the current four-year legislative term of the regional parliament for one more year