Topic: Arbil

Energy Voices As Kurds gain power, Baghdad may be ready for oil deal

The Iraqi central government and authorities of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government put together a seven-point deal last week that could see the Kurds resume oil exports to Iraq in return for a revision of the Iraqi 2013 budget, Alic writes.

Syrian conflict threatens to fracture Iraq

Semi-autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan and the central Iraqi government are on a collision course as the Kurds increasingly side with the Syrian opposition and Baghdad stands by the Assad regime. 

Turkey warns Assad that he must keep Kurds in check, or risk intervention

Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan said earlier this week that if the Syrian Kurds use their base to launch a terror campaign on Turkey, intervention in Syria would be 'our most natural right.'

Iraq's unity tested by rising tensions over oil-rich Kurdish region

As Iraqi Kurdistan ramps up oil production that could soon surpass Libya's output, Kurdish leaders have warned they may seek independence if disputes over oil revenues, power-sharing aren't resolved.

Iraq's Maliki accused of jailing, torturing opponents

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was accused by former prime minister and rival Ayad Allawi of using the security services to torture members of opposition groups into giving false confessions.

Global Viewpoint Turkey and Iran carve up a ruptured Arab world

Many analysts say the Middle East is the focus of a geopolitical power struggle between the United States and Iran. That misses the primary thread of events – namely, the ongoing soft partition of the Arab republics between Turkey and Iran, with Turkey the stronger power.

Terrorism & Security Iraq bombings, political crisis raise concerns of renewed civil war

Bombings in Iraq targeted two Shiite neighborhoods of Baghdad today. The violence, coming amid a Sunni-Shiite political crisis, threatens to inflame the tensions that led to civil war in 2006-07.

Backchannels Could Iraq descend into a civil war again? (VIDEO)

The scars of Iraq's painful bloodletting are deep, and a powerful disincentive against a return to open warfare. But Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is moving against Sunni Arabs, his political enemies.
12/20/2011 02:00 pm

Terrorism & Security Syria warns world against recognition of opposition, even as it alienates Kurds (VIDEO)

Damascus faces a double threat: growing international support for the Syrian National Council and the prospect that Syria's Kurd population could join the opposition's ranks.
10/10/2011 10:48 am

Backchannels Norway attacks: the latest terror strikes in Western Europe

Details are still sketchy on who carried out the Oslo bombing, but Norwegian police are also connecting it to a gunmen who attacked a political youth camp shortly after.
07/22/2011 06:52 pm

A Kurdish family's loss symbolizes northern Iraq's unmet promise

A 16-year-old protester was among the first to be killed in democracy protests earlier this year against the corruption and authoritarianism that pervade Kurdish politics.
07/15/2011 11:42 am

Arab Spring crackdown damages Kurdistan's image as regional model

The US has long championed semi-autonomous Kurdistan as a democratic model for the rest of Iraq and the Middle East. But Kurdish leaders have violently shut down dissenters.
07/01/2011 12:19 pm

Ideas for a better world in 2011

In many ways, 2010 is a year you may want to relegate to the filing cabinet quickly. It began with a massive earthquake in Haiti and wound down with North Korea once again being an enfant terrible – bizarrely trying to conduct diplomacy through brinkmanship. In between came Toyota recalls and egg scares, pat downs at airports and unyielding unemployment numbers, too little money in the Irish treasury and too many bedbugs in American sheets. Oil gushed from the floor of the Gulf of Mexico for three months, mocking the best intentions of man and technology to stop it, while ash from a volcano in Iceland darkened Europe temporarily as much as its balance sheets. Yet not all was gloomy. The winter Olympics in Canada and the World Cup in South Africa dazzled with their displays of athletic prowess and national pride, becoming hearths around which the world gathered. In Switzerland, the world's largest atom smasher hurled two protons into each other at unfathomable speeds. Then came the year's most poignant moment – the heroic and improbable rescue of 33 miners from the clutches of the Chilean earth. There were many transitions, too – the return of the Republicans in Washington and the Tories in Britain, the scaling back of one war (Iraq) and the escalation of another (Afghanistan), the fall of some powers (Greece) and rise of others (China, Germany, Lady Gaga). To get the new year off to the right start, we decided to ask various thinkers for one idea each to make the world a better place in 2011. We plumbed poets and political figures, physicists and financiers, theologians and novelists. Some of the ideas are provocative, others quixotic. Some you will agree with, others you won't. But in the modest quest to stir a discussion – from academic salons to living rooms to government corridors – we offer these 25 ideas.
12/26/2010 12:56 pm

Tumultuous parliamentary session threatens Iraq's fragile new government

Ayad Allawi's Iraqiya coalition was relegated to head a powerful new strategic council, a bitter disappointment to his secular and Sunni followers who believed he would usher in a new era.
11/11/2010 05:25 pm

Iraqi official: leaders have framework to form new government

Under the agreement hammered out Wednesday evening, Iraq's new government would look a lot like the old government, a senior official told the Monitor. Parliament meets Thursday.
11/10/2010 06:07 pm

Iraqi Christians flee homes after fresh Baghdad attacks

Bombings in Baghdad late Tuesday and early Wednesday targeted Christians, killing at least four just 10 days after more than 50 Christians were killed by Al Qaeda-linked gunmen who stormed a church during Sunday mass.
11/10/2010 12:41 pm

In Iraq, Christians fear they could be wiped out – like Jews before them

The Oct. 31 attack on a Baghdad church – the worst in recent memory – has spurred a fresh exodus among Iraq's Christian community, already decimated by the war.
11/09/2010 01:20 pm

Iraq's divided leaders meet for the first time since March elections

Iraq's leaders met to try to break a political deadlock that has left Iraqis vulnerable to escalating violence, including two car bombings today.
11/08/2010 02:37 pm

Terrorism & Security Al Qaeda ally in Iraq says all Christians 'legitimate targets'

The Islamic State of Iraq, the umbrella group for Al Qaeda in the country, claims Muslim women are being held against their will in Coptic churches in Egypt.
11/03/2010 10:28 am

In Pictures US hikers detained in Iran

The Adam Smith Institute Blog 'Invisible hand' visible in Kurdistan

In the wake of untold violence, Kurdistan's street blooms with chatter and commerce. What besides the 'invisible hand' could explain it?
08/31/2010 06:35 pm

Iraq road map: the new US ambassador explains hurdles

Iraq's new US ambassador has been welcomed by Iraqi political leaders, who criticized his predecessor for not being actively engaged in the political process.
08/27/2010 03:46 pm

Troops withdraw, but US work in Iraq war unfinished and fragile

The last US combat troops leave Iraq Thursday, shifting the American role in the Iraq war from the Pentagon to the State Department, which faces a potentially unprecedented task.
08/19/2010 05:51 pm

Iraq foreign ministry reopens as symbol of defying terrorists

Iraq reopened a rebuilt foreign ministry building in Baghdad Wednesday, just nine months after a major truck bombing. 'The best answer to the terrorists ... is to rise from the ashes again,' said Iraq's Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari.
05/19/2010 03:36 pm

Iraqi Christians attacked ahead of Iraq election

Killings of Iraqi Christians in the northern city of Mosul have sparked an exodus from the Arab-controlled city to Kurdish areas. The number of Iraqi Christians attacked has spiked in the run-up to elections, scheduled for Sunday.
03/02/2010 11:16 am