The Iraqi federal government commenced a military intervention in the Kurdish-occupied oil-rich city of Kirkuk. This area has long been disputed between the Iraqi central authorities and the Kurdish Regional Government of Northern Iraq, and Article 140 of the post-2003 US-imposed “constitution” decreed that a referendum was supposed to have been held here before 2008. …
Continue reading Will the Kirkuk Campaign Lead to Regime Change in Kurdistan?
It was in 1916, in the midst of World War I, that Britain and France (pitted against the Germans, Austrians and Ottoman Turks) made their infamous Sykes-Picot agreement. In grand imperial style, they used this agreement to divide up the Middle East between them. It was a daring move, considering that the war was at …
America’s withdrawal from the “Iran deal” doesn’t prove that Iran is a threat to world peace and stability – instead – it proves that America cannot be trusted. In a recent public statement, US President Donald Trump announced the United States’ decertification of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) also known as the …
Continue reading America’s Predictable Betrayal of the Iran Deal
Elite Iraqi security forces have captured the Kurdish government headquarters buildings in the centre of Kirkuk with the Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi ordering the Iraqi flag to be raised over Kirkuk and other disputed territories. An Iraqi Oil Ministry official said that it would be “a very short time” before the Iraqi military seized all the oilfields …
The Battle of Kirkuk lasted less than 24 hours. In a lightning – and mostly bloodless – offensive, the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) retook control of the North Oil Co. and North Gas Co. headquarters, the K1 military base, the Bai Hassan oil field, and two domes of the Kirkuk oil field on Monday. Baghdad …
Continue reading Kirkuk Redux was a Bloodless Offensive. Here’s Why
In moving to reassert control of the city of Kirkuk from the Kurds, who hitherto had controlled the city under the aegis of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), the Iraqi government has acted in full accordance with its legal and moral rights. The tragedy of the Kurds both of Syria and Iraq is that they …
Continue reading Kirkuk Crisis and the Iraqi Government’s Absolute Right to Restore Its Writ
The US President Donald Trump’s refusal to certify the Iran deal grabbed public attention hitting mainstream media headlines. But the gaze should shift to another flash point as a major war in the Middle East involving many actors can spark at any moment. With Islamic State almost squeezed out from Iraq, the country is being …
Continue reading Middle East: Next Step is Another Large-Scale War
Iraqi soldiers have raised their country’s flags over key buildings in Kirkuk, and Baghdad has declared the Kurdish city be under government control. The Kurdish Peshmerga forces called the takeover “a flagrant declaration of war” and vowed that Iraq will pay a “heavy price.” The Iraqi government forces have taken full control of Kirkuk, Al …
Continue reading Iraqi Forces Taking Over Kirkuk ‘A Declaration of War’ – Kurdish Peshmerga
One week after Kurdish leader Masud Barzani held his referendum on Kurdish independence from Iraq (with both the referendum and independence being contrary to the Iraqi constitution), the blowback has been fierce, angry and almost universal. What may have been conceived as a clever ploy by Masud’s eldest son, Masrour, to bolster the Barzani family’s …
