BAGHDAD: A referendum on independence for Iraqi Kurdistan set for September 25 comes as the autonomous region faces the worst economic crisis in its short history.
Plunging government income, the challenge of fighting the Daesh group and the cost of hosting hundreds of thousands of refugees have combined to punch a gaping hole in the Kurdistan Regional Government’s budget.
“The KRG’s coffers are empty and it’s burdened with debts,” Ruba Husari, an expert on Iraq’s oil industry, told AFP.
The World Bank said in a recent report that the fiscal crisis and the security challenge posed by IS “have had a significant adverse impact on economic growth”.
The region has benefitted from an influx of investment since the 2003 fall of dictator Saddam Hussein in a US-led invasion.
It won a measure of autonomy in the 2005 Iraqi constitution and has been seen as an island of stability in a country plunged into anarchy.
The drowsy regional capital Irbil was transformed as investors built towers, plush buildings, shopping malls and hotels to host foreign executives on business trips.
All that collapsed in 2014 as the price of oil plunged, IS jihadists seized a tranche of northern Iraq abutting the KRG and more than a million displaced Iraqis and Syrian refugees fled to the autonomous region.
That was compounded by Baghdad’s decision to suspend payments to the KRG of 17 percent of Iraq’s national budget.
The transfers, worth some $12 billion (SR45 billion) ), made up 80 percent of the region’s budget revenues.
Wages, including those of Peshmerga fighters, were slashed.
“The fiscal shock is severe,” the World Bank said.
It said the regional government has dealt with the cut in revenues by borrowing money, postponing projects, and delaying payments – including the salaries of government employees.
The combination of crises slashed GDP growth from eight percent in 2013 to three percent in 2014, the World Bank said in 2015.
A senior KRG official said that by the end of that year, public servants’ salaries had been cut by 60 percent.
For the past two months, the region’s 1.2 million civil servants and retirees have not been paid at all, he told AFP.
Fathi Al-Mudaress, an adviser to the KRG, said the crisis “stems from the fact that (the region) has made oil revenues its main source of income.”
“Two years into the crisis, the autonomous region’s government has adopted policies of austerity and income diversification, notably through tourism, agriculture and industry,” he told AFP.
Kurdistan on average produces some 600,000 barrels a day, of which 550,000 are exported via Turkey.
That includes some 250,000 from the oil fields of disputed Kirkuk province, seized by Kurdish forces when IS took control of Iraq’s second city Mosul.
The KRG sells oil through advance contracts, in effect taking out loans from firms including Swiss commodities giants Vitol and Glencore and repaying its debts with barrels of crude.
The KRG has used this system to borrow more than $3 billion in the past three years.
Recently it borrowed $1 billion from Russia’s Rosneft to pay damages to European-Emirati consortium Pearl Petroleum, which is in a dispute with the regional government.
Rosneft will also be paid in barrels of oil.
But with oil prices still depressed, Kurdistan has been unable to pay investors developing its fields, and its debts are growing.
The World Bank warned in 2016 that “arrears in payments to oil companies and contractors create an uncertain business environment”.
Husari said the crisis is much more severe than the Kurdistan government admits.
“The obvious ‘yes’ result of the referendum will not lead automatically to a declaration of an independent state but will open battles on several fronts,” she said.
“For Barzani it’s a leap forward to stay in power while diverting attention from the dire economic state of the region.”
Iraq’s Kurds in economic crisis ahead of independence vote
Iraq’s Kurds in economic crisis ahead of independence vote
Israel is falling far short of a US ultimatum to surge aid to Gaza
- In a letter earlier, US officials demanded that Israel allow in a minimum of 350 trucks a day carrying desperately needed food and other supplies
- By the end of October, an average of just 71 trucks a day were entering Gaza, according to the latest UN figures
WASHINGTON: Halfway through the Biden administration’s 30-day ultimatum for Israel to surge the level of humanitarian assistance allowed into Gaza or risk possible restrictions on US military funding, Israel is falling far short, an Associated Press review of UN and Israeli data shows.
Israel also has missed some other deadlines and demands outlined in a Oct. 13 letter from Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. The mid-November deadline — following the US election — may serve as a final test of President Joe Biden ‘s willingness to check a close ally that has shrugged off repeated US appeals to protect Palestinian civilians during the war against Hamas.
In their letter, Blinken and Austin demanded improvements to the deteriorating humanitarian condition in Gaza, saying that Israel must allow in a minimum of 350 trucks a day carrying desperately needed food and other supplies. By the end of October, an average of just 71 trucks a day were entering Gaza, according to the latest UN figures.
Blinken said the State Department and Pentagon were closely following Israel’s response to the letter, including speaking with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s top aide on Friday.
“There’s been progress, but it’s insufficient, and we’re working on a daily basis to make sure Israel does what it must do to ensure that this assistance gets to people who need it inside of Gaza,” Blinken told reporters Thursday.
“It’s not enough to get trucks to Gaza. It’s vital that what they bring with them can get distributed effectively inside of Gaza,” he added.
Blinken and Austin’s letter marked one of the toughest stands the Biden administration has taken in a year of appeals and warnings to Israel to lessen the harm to Palestinian civilians.
Support for Israel is a bedrock issue for many Republican voters and some Democrats. That makes any Biden administration decision on restricting military funding a fraught one for the tight presidential race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.
In hard-hit north Gaza in particular, an escalated Israeli military campaign and restrictions on aid have kept all food and other care from reaching populated areas since mid-October, aid organizations say. It could set the stage for famine in coming weeks or months, international monitors say.
Leaders of 15 UN and humanitarian groups, including the World Food Program and World Health Organization, warned Friday that “the situation unfolding in north Gaza is apocalyptic.”
And despite US objections, Israeli lawmakers this week voted effectively to ban the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA. Governments worldwide, the UN and aid organizations say cutting off UNRWA would shatter the aid networks struggling to get food and other supplies to people in Gaza.
“Catastrophic,” Amber Alayyan, a medical program manager for Gaza at Doctors Without Borders, said of the move.
Humanitarian officials are deeply skeptical Israel will significantly improve assistance to Gaza’s civilians even with the US warning — or that the Biden administration will do anything if it doesn’t.
At this point in the war, “neither of those has happened,” said Scott Paul, an associate director of the Oxfam humanitarian organization.
“Over and over and again, we’ve been told” by Biden administration officials “that there are processes to evaluate the situation on the ground” in Gaza “and some movement’s been made to implement US law, and time and again that has not happened,” Paul said.
Before the war, an average of 500 trucks daily brought aid into the territory. Relief groups have said that’s the minimum needed for Gaza’s 2.3 million people, most of whom have since been uprooted from their homes, often multiple times.
There has never been a month where Israel came close to meeting that figure since the conflict began, peaking in April at 225 trucks a day, according to Israeli government figures.
By the time Blinken and Austin sent their letter this month, concerns were rising that aid restrictions were starving civilians. The number of aid trucks that Israel has allowed into Gaza has plunged since last spring and summer, falling to a daily average of just 13 a day by the beginning of October, according to UN figures.
By the end of the month, it rose to an average of 71 trucks a day, the UN figures show.
Once supplies get to Gaza, groups still face obstacles distributing the aid to warehouses and then to people in need, organizations and the State Department said this week. That includes slow Israeli processing, Israeli restrictions on shipments, lawlessness and other obstacles, aid groups said.
Data from COGAT, the Israeli military body in charge of humanitarian aid to Gaza, shows aid has fallen to under a third of its levels in September and August. In September, 87,446 tons of aid entered the Gaza Strip. In October, 26,399 tons got in.
Elad Goren, a senior COGAT official, said last week that aid delivery and distribution in the north have been mainly confined to Gaza City.
When asked why aid was not being delivered to other parts of the north — like Jabaliya, a crowded urban refugee camp where Israel is staging an offensive — he said the population there was being evacuated and those who remained had “enough assistance” from previous months.
In other areas like Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya, Goren claimed falsely there was “no population” left.
COGAT declined to comment on the standard in the US letter. It said it was complying with government directives on aid to Gaza. Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon blamed Hamas for plundering aid.
Paul of Oxfam said no aid at all was reaching populated areas in northern Gaza and only small amounts were getting to Gaza City.
“No way” has Israel made progress in getting humanitarian support to the hundreds of thousands of people in north Gaza in particular since the US ultimatum, said Alayyan of Doctors Without Borders.
Israel’s government appeared to blow past another deadline set in Austin and Blinken’s letter. It called for Israel to set up a senior-level channel for US officials to raise concerns about reported harm to Palestinian civilians and hold a first meeting by the end of October.
No such channel — requested repeatedly by the US during the war — had been created by the final day of the month.
The US is by far the biggest provider of arms and other military aid to Israel, including nearly $18 billion during the war in Gaza, according to a study for Brown University’s Costs of War project.
The Biden administration paused a planned shipment of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel last spring, citing concerns for civilians in an Israeli offensive.
In a formal review in May, the administration concluded that Israel’s use of US-provided weapons in Gaza likely violated international humanitarian law but said wartime conditions prevented officials from determining that for certain in specific strikes.
Iraq’s parliament elects a new speaker to end a nearly yearlong vacuum
BAGHDAD: Iraq’s parliament has elected a new speaker after a nearly yearlong vacuum.
Mahmoud Al-Mashhadani, who served a previous stint as speaker from 2006 to 2009, was elected by 182 of the 269 legislators who attended the session, a surprise move after months of deadlock between political factions.
Former Speaker Mohammed Al-Halbousi was dismissed by a Federal Supreme Court last November against the backdrop of a lawsuit filed by then-lawmaker Laith Al-Dulaimi.
Al-Dulaim claimed that the speaker had forged Al-Dulaimi’s signature on a resignation letter, an allegation Al-Halbousi denied.
The court ruled to terminate both Al-Halbousi and Al-Dulaimi from their parliamentary posts.
It did not elaborate on why it was issuing the decision.
The speaker is an intermediary between the various political blocs and will be critical to the government’s efforts to achieve economic reforms and reduce internal tensions.
The election of a new parliament speaker comes at a time when Iraq is facing significant challenges — chief among them attempting to navigate the repercussions of the wars in the Middle East.
Iraq’s government has sought to avoid alienating the US, upon which it has relied for economic and military support, including in the fight against Daesh.
The country also faces rampant corruption and internal divisions.
The new speaker will have to deal with some controversial legislation, notably a proposed amendment to Iraq’s personal status law governing family matters, which critics say would effectively legalize child marriage.
WATCH: Rebuilding of Mosul’s famous leaning minaret nears completion
- The 12th-century Al-Nuri Mosque and its distinctive tower were destroyed by Daesh in June 2017
- Restoration work on the mosque, part of UNESCO’s Revive the Spirit of Mosul project, is expected to be completed next month
LONDON: UNESCO has shared dramatic footage of a historic mosque minaret that has been rebuilt in Iraq, seven years after it was destroyed by Daesh.
Known as Al-Hadba, or “the hunchback,” the leaning 12th-Century minaret at Al-Nuri Mosque in Mosul was one of the city’s most famous landmarks. But it was destroyed when the extremist group blew up the mosque in June 2017.
The video from the UN’s cultural agency features drone footage that shows the minaret nearing completion. Though the rebuilt tower is still covered in scaffolding, the footage clearly shows that its famous lean has been retained.
“Watch as the iconic Al-Hadba minaret in Mosul rises once again,” UNESCO said in a message posted with the video on social media platform X.
“Soon, this historic landmark will reclaim its rightful place in the city’s skyline — standing tall, leaning, and proud.”
UNESCO said the restoration of the mosque and its 51-meter-tall minaret is expected to be completed by December.
The mosque was built in the second half of the 12th century and the minaret began to lean several centuries ago. After Daesh seized control of parts of Iraq in 2014, the group’s leader, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, declared the establishment of its so-called caliphate from inside the mosque.
Three years later, it was destroyed by the militants as Iraqi forces battled to expel them from the city. Thousands of civilians were killed in the fighting and much of Mosul was left in ruins.
The restoration of the mosque is part of UNESCO’s Revive the Spirit of Mosul project, which also includes the rebuilding of two churches and other historic sites.
Delayed Gaza polio vaccinations to resume on Saturday, agencies say
- The final phase of the campaign had aimed to reach an estimated 119,000 children under 10 years old
GAZA: The third phase of a delayed polio vaccination campaign in Gaza will begin on Saturday, aid organizations said on Friday, after the rollout was derailed by Israeli bombardments, mass displacement and lack of access.
The polio campaign began on Sept. 1 after the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed in August that a baby was partially paralyzed by the type 2 polio virus, the first such case in the territory in 25 years.
The humanitarian pause to conduct the campaign had been agreed but WHO and the UN children’s agency UNICEF said the area covered by the agreement had been substantially reduced from the previous pause in September, and would now cover only Gaza City.
The final phase of the campaign had aimed to reach an estimated 119,000 children under 10 years old in northern Gaza with a second dose of novel oral polio vaccine type 2 (nOPV2). However, achieving this target is now unlikely due to access constraints, the statement said.
COGAT, the Israeli army’s Palestinian civilian affairs agency, said it was helping to coordinate the three-day campaign and once it was complete, there would be an assessment to decide whether the schedule would be extended.
“This coordination will ensure that the population can safely reach medical centers where the vaccines will be administered,” it said in a statement.
Macron recognizes French soldiers killed Algerian independence hero in 1957
- France’s century-long colonization of Algeria and viciously fought 1954-62 war of independence left deep scars on both sides
PARIS: President Emmanuel Macron on Friday acknowledged that Larbi Ben M’hidi, a key figure in Algeria’s War of Independence against France, had been killed by French soldiers after his arrest in 1957, the French presidency said.
“He recognized today that Larbi Ben M’hidi, a national hero for Algeria... was killed by French soldiers,” the presidency said on the 70th anniversary of the revolt that sparked the war, in a new gesture of reconciliation by Macron toward the former colony.
France’s more than a century-long colonization of Algeria and the viciously fought 1954-62 war of independence have left deep scars on both sides.
In recent years, Macron has made several gestures toward reconciliation while stopping short of issuing any apology for French imperialism.
Since coming to power in 2017, Macron has sought “to look at the history of colonization and the Algerian War in the face, with the aim of creating a peaceful and shared memory,” the presidency said.
Ben M’hidi was one of six founding members of the National Liberation Front (FLN) that launched the armed revolt against French rule that led to the war.
The presidency said that according to the official version, Ben M’hidi after his arrest in February 1957 attempted to commit suicide and died during his transfer to the hospital.
But it said he had in fact been killed by soldiers under the command of General Paul Aussaresses, who admitted to this at the beginning of the 2000s.
In 2017, then-presidential candidate Macron dubbed the French occupation a “crime against humanity.”
A report he commissioned from historian Benjamin Stora recommended in 2020 further moves to reconcile the two countries, while ruling out “repentance” and “apologies.”
But Macron, who has sought to build a strong relationship with Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, in 2022 questioned whether Algeria existed as a nation before being colonized by France, drawing an angry response from Algiers.
