Pro-Iran paramilitaries join push to ‘paralyze’ Basra oil exports

Iraqi protesters burn tires and block the road at the entrance to the city of Basra. (AFP)
Updated 13 July 2018
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Pro-Iran paramilitaries join push to ‘paralyze’ Basra oil exports

  • Disruption to Iraq's oil production would be in Iran’s interest as it seeks to hit back at US sanctions
  • Protesters and police injured on fifth day of protests

BAGHDAD: Iran-backed armed factions in Iraq announced their support on Thursday for demonstrations sweeping the country’s main oil hub.

Protesters in Basra are targeting local and international oil companies, and warn they will “paralyze” the industry unless their demands for jobs and improved basic services are met.

Pro-Iranian paramilitary troops, including Asaib Ahl Al-Haq, one of the most prominent Shiite armed factions, and its offshoots Al-Nujabaa, Kataib Sayyad Al-Shuhaddaa and Saraya Al-Kharassani all said separately they were backing the protesters.

Iran would benefit from any disruption to the oil sector in Basra as it seeks to stave off US sanctions against its own oil exports, analysts and oil experts told Arab News.

The Shiite forces could provide logistical support for the protests, which have blocked roads and led to clashes with police.

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Early on Thursday, thousands of protesters tried to storm the entrances of oil company headquarters in northern Basra.

Iraqi security forces opened fire to disperse the demonstrators, who responded by hurling stones.

Six people, including two policemen, were wounded in the exchanges and temporary buildings belonging to the Russian energy giant Lukoil Company were set on fire. Security sources said that foreign employees of the company were evacuated by helicopter.

Iran wields considerable influence in Iraq, particularly in the predominantly Shiite south, where it supports a network of armed factions with funding and weapons. 

Gaining influence over the oil and gas sector in Iraq is vital for Iran as it seeks to head off US attempts to economically suffocate Tehran, analysts said. 

In May, US President Donald Trump pulled out of a deal between Iran and world powers to curb Tehran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.

The US has ordered all countries to stop buying Iranian oil by November or face sanctions themselves. 

Disrupting the export of Iraqi oil would “send a message to the US that the Iraqi oil industry and its output are not out of (Iran’s) reach,” an Iraqi analyst based in Washington told Arab News.

“What is happening in Basra is part of the conflict between the US and Iran. It may be a preemptive step from Iran to affect or halt Iraqi oil exports.

“Iran has sent two messages through these demonstrations. The first is to tell the US that the Iraqi oil sector can be reached by its hands in the region.

“The second was to tell the international community that Iraqi oil is not the appropriate alternative to compensate for a shortfall created by the absence of Iranian oil.”

Iraqi officials told Arab News that oil exports have not been affected by the protests.

The situation in Basra follows a threat by Iranian officials earlier this month to block global oil supplies being shipped through the Straits of Hormuz from the Arabian Gulf. 

The US president asked Saudi Arabia last week to increase its oil production to compensate for the shortfall in the global market and ensure the stability of oil prices, but the Kingdom alone will not be able to continue this in the long term and must be backed by another source.

“Iraqi oil is the solution,” an Iraqi analyst told Arab News. “The goal (behind the demonstrations) is to create security problems and tell the world that (Iraqi oil) source is not secure.”

Protests erupted on Sunday over a lack of basic services, including drinking water and electricity, but quickly turned against the oil companies with demonstrators demanding jobs. One protester was killed and three wounded by security forces on the first day.

The tribe of the fatally injured protester demanded the killer and their commander be handed over for punishment, but the Iraqi government refused to respond.

On Wednesday, 13 tribes announced their support for the demands of Bani Mansour, the victim’s tribe.

Officials have attempted to defuse the crisis in Basra by sending a ministerial committee, headed by Jabbar Luaibi, the oil minister.

The committee on Thursday offered to create 10,000 jobs in the oil and gas sector for the people of the region.


Israel military says three projectiles fired from north Gaza

Updated 7 sec ago
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Israel military says three projectiles fired from north Gaza

JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said it identified three projectiles fired from the northern Gaza Strip that crossed into Israel on Monday, the latest in a series of launches from the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.
“One projectile was intercepted by the IAF (air force), one fell in Sderot and another projectile fell in an open area. No injuries were reported,” the military said in a statement.

Sudan army air strike kills 10 in southern Khartoum: rescuers

Updated 35 min 46 sec ago
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Sudan army air strike kills 10 in southern Khartoum: rescuers

  • Strike targeted a market area of the capital’s Southern Belt ‘for the third time in less than a month’
  • War between Sudan’s regular army and the paramilitary forces has killed tens of thousands of people

PORT SUDAN, Sudan: Ten Sudanese civilians were killed and over 30 wounded in an army air strike on southern Khartoum, volunteer rescue workers said.
The strike on Sunday targeted a market area of the capital’s Southern Belt “for the third time in less than a month,” said the local Emergency Response Room (ERR), part of a network of volunteers across the country coordinating frontline aid.
The group said those killed burned to death. The wounded, suffering from burns, were taken to the local Bashair Hospital, with five of them in a critical condition.
Since April 2023, the war between Sudan’s regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has killed tens of thousands of people.
In the capital alone, the violence killed 26,000 people between April 2023 and June 2024, according to a report by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Khartoum has experienced some of the war’s worst violence, with entire neighborhoods emptied out and taken over by fighters.
The military, which maintains a monopoly on the skies with its jets, has not managed to wrest back control of the capital from the paramilitary.
Of the 11.5 million people currently displaced within Sudan, nearly a third have fled from the capital, according to United Nations figures.
Both the RSF and the army have been repeatedly accused of targeting civilians and indiscriminately shelling residential areas.


Israel says Hamas has not given ‘status of hostages’ it says ready to free

Updated 06 January 2025
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Israel says Hamas has not given ‘status of hostages’ it says ready to free

  • A Hamas official gave a list of 34 hostages the group was ready to free

JERUSALEM: Israel said on Monday that Hamas had so far not provided the status of the 34 hostages the group declared it was ready to release in the first phase of a potential exchange deal.
“As yet, Israel has not received any confirmation or comment by Hamas regarding the status of the hostages appearing on the list,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement after a Hamas official gave a list of 34 hostages the group was ready to free in the first phase.


Shooting attack on a bus carrying Israelis in the occupied West Bank kills 3

Updated 06 January 2025
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Shooting attack on a bus carrying Israelis in the occupied West Bank kills 3

  • The attack occurred in the Palestinian village of Al-Funduq, on one of the main east-west roads crossing the territory

JERUSALEM: A shooting attack on a bus carrying Israelis in the occupied West Bank killed at least three people and wounded seven others on Monday, Israeli medics said.
Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service said those killed included two women in their 60s and a man in his 40s.
Violence has surged in the West Bank since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack out of Gaza ignited the ongoing war there.
The attack occurred in the Palestinian village of Al-Funduq, on one of the main east-west roads crossing the territory. The identities of the attackers and those killed were not immediately known. The military said it was looking for the attackers, who fled.
Palestinians have carried out scores of shooting, stabbing and car-ramming attacks against Israelis in recent years. Israel has launched near-nightly military raids across the territory that frequently trigger gunbattle with militants.
The Palestinian Health Ministry says at least 835 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank since the start of the war in Gaza.
Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war, and the Palestinians want all three territories for their future state.
Some 3 million Palestinians live in the West Bank under seemingly open-ended Israeli military rule, with the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority administering population centers. Over 500,000 Israeli settlers live in scores of settlements, which most of the international community considers illegal.
Meanwhile, the war in Gaza is raging with no end in sight, though there has reportedly been recent progress in long-running talks aimed at a ceasefire and hostage release.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed across the border in a massive surprise attack nearly 15 months ago, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250. Some 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel’s air and ground offensive has killed over 45,800 Palestinians in Gaza, according to local health authorities, who say women and children make up more than half of those killed. They do not say how many of the dead were militants. The Israeli military says it has killed over 17,000 fighters, without providing evidence.
The war has destroyed vast areas of Gaza and displaced 90 percent of the territory’s population of 2.3 million, often multiple times. Hundreds of thousands are enduring a cold, rainy winter in tent camps along the windy coast. At least seven infants have died of hypothermia because of the harsh conditions, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Aid groups say Israeli restrictions, ongoing fighting and the breakdown of law and order in many areas make it difficult to provide desperately needed food and other assistance.


New Syria foreign minister begins first visit to UAE: state media

Updated 06 January 2025
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New Syria foreign minister begins first visit to UAE: state media

Damascus: Syria’s new foreign minister Asaad Al-Shaibani landed in the United Arab Emirates Monday on his first visit to the country since rebels toppled president Bashar Assad last month, official news agency SANA said.
“Shaibani, accompanied by defense minister Murhaf Abu Qasra and intelligence chief Anas Khattab, has arrived in the United Arab Emirates,” SANA reported.
Shaibani also posted a picture of himself on X stepping off a plane, and said he looked forward “to building constructive bilateral relations.”
The officials took office after Islamist-led rebels swept into Damascus in early December, toppling Assad after more than 13 years of civil war.
Their trip to the UAE comes after they visited its Gulf neighbors Qatar on Sunday and Saudi Arabia last week.
Both Qatar and Turkiye, which backed the anti-Assad opposition, reopened their embassies in Damascus in the aftermath of Assad’s flight to Moscow.
Turkiye has long maintained a working relationship with the HTS rebels, leaving it with a direct line to Damascus.