Author: Al Fanhur

An Iraqi court on Sunday handed down a death sentence to a former police officer on charges of murdering well-known political and security expert Hisham al-Hashimi in mid-2020. In a brief statement, the Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) said that a Baghdad criminal court “issued its death sentence against the criminal Ahmed Hamdawi Awaid for murdering security expert Hisham al-Hashimi” in accordance with the anti-terrorism law. On July 6, 2020, al-Hashimi was shot dead by gunmen who opened fire on his car near his house in the Zaiyouna neighborhood of eastern Baghdad. A man who identified himself as Ahmed Hamdawi…

Jordan and Iraq reached a deal on Thursday to renew the export of Iraqi crude to the kingdom under preferential terms, Jordan’s Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources said in a statement. The deal was signed by Jordan’s Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Saleh Al Kharabsheh and Iraqi Minister of Oil Hayan Abdul Ghani in Baghdad. Under the deal, Jordan will start importing 10,000 barrels of crude per day for a period of a year starting from June, the Jordan News Agency reported, citing an Iraq Ministry of Oil statement. Under a memorandum of understanding signed in 2021, Jordan…

U.S. oil prices suffered substantial losses on Monday on possible resumption of oil export from Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region via Türkiye’s Ceyhan oil terminal. The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for May delivery dropped 1.69 U.S. dollars, or 2.05 percent, to settle at 80.83 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for June delivery decreased 1.55 dollars, or 1.8 percent, to settle at 84.76 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange. Iraq’s federal government and the Kurdistan regional government have resolved technical issues essential to resuming the region’s oil exports via the Turkish port of…

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani emphasized on Monday his country’s openness to expanding cooperation with Ukraine, calling for settling international disputes by rejecting wars and adopting dialogue. Al-Sudani made the remarks during a meeting with visiting Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, according to a statement released by the media office of the Iraqi Prime Minister. The two sides discussed ways to enhance trade and economic exchange between Iraq and Ukraine, said the statement, adding that al-Sudani reiterated Iraq’s stance in resolving international and regional problems and disputes by rejecting wars and adopting dialogue.…

Three Islamic State (IS) militants were killed in an airstrike on Thursday in Iraq’s eastern province of Diyala, a security source said. Based on intelligence reports, Iraqi warplanes carried out an airstrike on an IS hideout in the Himreen mountain range in northern Diyala, destroying the hideout and killing three IS militants, Ali Fadhel Omran, commander of Diyala Operations, told Xinhua. Omran added that a total of 40 IS militants, including some leaders of the terrorist organization, were killed during the past five months in airstrikes in the Himreen Mountains. Despite repeated military operations against IS remnants, extremist militants are…

The Jordanian Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources announced on May 22 the resumption of Iraqi crude oil exports after it stopped last month, according to a statement issued by the Jordanian ministry. “Based on the memorandum of understanding signed between Iraq and Jordan, Iraqi crude oil exports to Jordan were resumed,” the Director of the Oil and Gas Directorate at the Jordanian Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, Iman Awad, mentioned in the statement. Awad explained that 105,000 barrels of Iraqi crude oil were loaded into 422 oil tanker trucks, adding that 300 out of the 422 oil tanker…

Baghdad – A security source mentioned that a Turkish bombing targeted a security vehicle, west of Nineveh governorate, in northern Iraq, Alsumaria News reported. The security source said that the bombing targeted a vehicle belonging to the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) near the Sinjar Police Directorate in Nineveh. Ankara, which has military bases in northern Iraq for 25 years, launches military operations against militants belonging to Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), who are stationed in training camps and bases in northern Iraq. Turkish forces are stationed in about 40 locations in the northern part of Iraq, from which they track PKK…

A US Navy reconnaissance jet flew over the Taiwan Strait on Monday, in a maneuver intended to assert the right to operate in international airspace despite strong objections from the Chinese military. In a statement Monday, the US 7th Fleet said the flight of the P-8A Poseidon over the waterway that separates China and the self-ruled island of Taiwan was conducted in accordance with international law, demonstrating “the United States’ commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific.” But a spokesman for China’s Eastern Theater Command of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), Army Senior Col. Shi Yi, accused Washington of hyping…

Russia has for the first time emerged as top oil supplier to India replacing Iraq as refiners last month snapped up oil from Moscow fearing a price cap from Dec. 5 could hit supplies and choke payment avenues, data obtained from trade sources showed. 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. The Group of Seven nations, Australia, and the 27 European Union countries have imposed a price cap of $60 a barrel on Russian seaborne oil from Dec. 5 as the West tries to limit…