Author: Abu Hadah

A protester was shot dead and a dozen wounded on Saturday during clashes between ethnic groups in the northern Iraqi oil city of Kirkuk that broke out after days of tensions, security forces and police said. The dispute centers on occupation of a building in Kirkuk that served as the headquarters for the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in the past but which the Iraqi army has used a base since 2017. The central government plans to return to the building to the KDP in a show of goodwill but Arab and Turkmen opponents set up a camp outside the building…

GENEVA — Climate change is sparking human rights emergencies in numerous countries, the U.N. rights chief said Monday, stressing the need to fight the impunity of those who “plunder our environment.” Speaking before the United Nations Human Rights Council, Volker Türk pointed to recent examples of the “environmental horror that is our global planetary crisis.” He described visiting Basra, Iraq, where date palms once lined canals, but now “drought, searing heat, extreme pollution and fast-depleting supplies of fresh water are creating barren landscapes of rubble and dust.” “This spiraling damage is a human rights emergency for Iraq, and many other countries,”…

Dozens demonstrated on Wednesday outside the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI) in Baghdad, while bank owners called for official action to stop a sharp rise in the exchange rate of the US dollar after the United States blacklisted 14 Iraqi banks. The US dollar exchange rate jumped during the past two days from 1470 dinars to the US dollar to 1570 dinars to the US dollar. The rise took place after the United States barred 14 Iraqi banks last week from conducting US dollar transactions as part of a crackdown on transferring US currency to Iran and other sanctioned countries.…

The delivery of humanitarian aid to Syria’s rebel-held northwest from neighboring Turkey is virtually certain to get a green light to continue from the United Nations Security Council — but the big question is for how long. The council’s current authorization for aid deliveries through the Bab al-Hawa crossing is set to expire Monday, but the council has two rival extension resolutions before it to vote on. A Russian resolution would continue aid deliveries for six months and a Brazil-Switzerland resolution backed by most council members and Secretary-General Antonio Guterres would authorize a 12-month extension. The vote had been scheduled…

Hundreds of people protested in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region on Sunday in support of a jailed journalist hit with a new sentence before he was due to be freed. Sherwan Sherwani is the former editor of the monthly Bashur, known for its investigations into corruption. He was arrested in 2020 and jailed the following year for “espionage” and “incitement to protest and destabilize the region.” He had been due for release in September following a presidential decree reducing his sentence, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. But on Thursday, the CPJ said Sherwani was given a four-year prison term…

The reestablishment of diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran has a positive impact on the region in terms of peace and security, Iraq’s president said during a meeting with Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator in Baghdad on Tuesday. Saudi Arabia and Iran announced in March that they had reached an agreement, brokered by China, to reestablish diplomatic relations after seven years of no formal ties. “The rapprochement between Iran and the countries of the region and the restoration of relations with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a positive factor for the consolidation of security and peace,” Iraqi state news…

A court in the Kurdistan region of Iraq dealt independent civil society a blow on May 31, 2023, by ordering the closure of Rasan Organization over “its activities in the field of homosexuality,” Human Rights Watch said today. Rasan is the only human rights organization willing to vocally support lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI), in addition to its work on women’s rights and domestic violence. “Shuttering Rasan is not only an attack on civil society in Kurdistan but is also a direct threat to the lives and wellbeing of the vulnerable…

An Israeli-Russian researcher who went missing in Iraq in March is being held captive by a Shia militia, says Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Elizabeth Tsurkov, a PhD student at Princeton University in the United States, was conducting research in Baghdad when she was kidnapped. “We hold Iraq responsible for her safety and well-being,” Mr Netanyahu’s office said. Ms Tsurkov is being held by Kataib Hezbollah, according to Israel. It did not specify what the group’s demands were. Kataib Hezbollah (Brigades of the Party of God) is a powerful Iraqi Shia militia that gets financial and military support from Iran.…

Rahmon’s war against the Ismaili. Dubai (5/7 – 75) The government of Tajikistan’s campaign against the operations of a charitable organization funded by the Agha Khan, the spiritual leader of the country’s Ismaili minority, has intensified over the past few weeks. In the most recent development, the authorities have revoked the license of the Aga Khan Lycée in Khorog, the capital of the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region, or GBAO. A source at the Aga Khan Foundation told Eurasianet that June 30 was the last day that the secondary school would operate under its aegis. The Aga Khan Development Network, the umbrella…

The Iraqi Ministry of Trade revealed on Thursday that the government is planning to complete the requirements for Iraq’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), indicating that financial contributions to the WTO have been settled. A statement issued by the Ministry of Trade illustrated that work is underway to complete the requirements for joining the WTO, especially in terms of goods, services, the agricultural issue, and the modernization of the customs system. Coordination has been ongoing with the General Authority of Customs to complete the modernization of the customs system and finalize the Tariff Law to be able to…