BASRA: Exxon Mobil employees will start returning to Iraq’s West Qurna 1 oilfield on Sunday after the government agreed to provide extra security, two senior Iraqi oil officials told Reuters on Friday.
Senior company management and essential engineers would be among the first employees to return, the Iraqi officials said, two weeks after Exxon pulled its 60 or so foreign staff from the oilfield and flew them to Dubai.
The evacuation came just days after the United States withdrew non-essential staff from its embassy in Baghdad, citing a threat from neighboring Iran.
Exxon asked for extra security from the police and army at work sites and residences and Iraq agreed, the officials said. The company has received letters of assurance from the Iraqi oil ministry and Basra Oil Company.
Iraqi Oil Minister Thamer Ghadhban at the time called the evacuation “unacceptable and unjustified,” saying it was a political move, rather than borne out of genuine security concerns. He said he had sent a letter to Exxon Mobil after the staff left asking for the company to immediately return to work at the southern oilfield.
Exxon Mobil is the lead contractor in a long-term deal with Iraq’s South Oil Company to develop and rehabilitate the oil field and increase production.
Production was not affected by the evacuation and work continued normally, overseen by Iraqi engineers, Iraqi officials said at the time. Production remained at 440,000 barrels per day (bpd) and Iraqi officials later said they would increase it to 490,000 bpd shortly.
Exxon’s foreign staff to return to Iraqi oilfield with extra security
Exxon’s foreign staff to return to Iraqi oilfield with extra security
- Exxon asked for extra security from the police and army at work sites and residences and Iraq agreed, the officials said
- The company is the lead contractor in a long-term deal with Iraq’s South Oil Company to develop and rehabilitate the oil field and increase production
Israeli settlers vandalize Palestinian Zanouta School in south Hebron
- Zanouta is a small village east of Al-Dhahiriya, with nearly 150 people
- Residents had just completed restoration work to prepare for pupils’ return when the attack occurred on Sunday
LONDON: Israeli settlers vandalized a Palestinian school near Hebron in the occupied West Bank after residents completed renovation for pupils’ return.
Fayez Al-Tal, the head of the Zanouta Village Council, said that the village school was destroyed by Israeli settlers who, early on Sunday, broke into the premises and “looted” the iron doors, wooden panels, and classroom dividers, according to Wafa news agency.
Zanouta is a small village east of Al-Dhahiriya, with nearly 150 people. Most of the 27 families there work as shepherds and some residents live in naturally formed caves. Israeli settlers have repeatedly demolished the village school, but the residents have rebuilt it each time.
Al-Tal said that residents and the local council had just completed restoration work to prepare for pupils’ return when the attack occurred on Sunday. He said that settlers “repeatedly attacked the village, destroyed homes, and forcibly displaced residents through violence and property destruction.”
In November 2023, Israeli settlers set fire to and destroyed the Zanouta Coeducational Primary School. Additionally, on Oct. 28, 2023, residents were forced to abandon their homes because of relentless Israeli attacks, which were overshadowed by the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.
After being displaced for nine months, villagers received an Israeli court order in August 2024 to return to Zanouta. Israeli settler attacks, however, continue, Wafa reported.
Qatar PM sees some progress on Gaza truce
- “We need to find an answer for the ultimate question: how to end this war,” Sheikh Mohammed said
- PM met with Barnea in the Qatari capital to discuss a potential hostage deal on Thursday, Israeli media said
DOHA: Gaza mediator Qatar said Sunday there was some progress in talks in Doha this week aimed at securing a new truce in the Israel-Hamas war.
Speaking at a news conference, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani reported “a bit of progress,” in response to questions about reports of a Thursday meeting in Doha between Israel’s Mossad spy agency chief David Barnea and the Qatari prime minister.
“We need to find an answer for the ultimate question: how to end this war. That’s, that’s basically, I think, the key point of the entire negotiations,” Sheikh Mohammed added.
Qatar, alongside Egypt and the United States, brokered a truce between Israel and Hamas in Gaza which came into effect on January 19 but which did not bring a complete end to the war.
The initial phase of the truce ended in early March, with the two sides unable to agree on the next steps. Israel resumed air and ground attacks across the Gaza Strip on March 18 after earlier halting the entry of aid.
Sheikh Mohammed met with Barnea in the Qatari capital to discuss a potential hostage deal on Thursday, according to Israeli media.
“The meeting that took place on Thursday is part of these efforts where we’re trying to find a breakthrough,” the Qatari prime minister said without further elaborating on the details of the meeting.
Hamas is open to an agreement to end the war in Gaza that would see all hostages released and secure a five-year truce, an official told AFP on Saturday as the group’s negotiators met in Cairo.
The Qatari PM said efforts were focused on the “best comprehensive deal possible that ends the war, brings the hostages out and not dividing (a deal) into other phases.”
Hamas has insisted that the negotiations should lead to a permanent end to the war.
According to the Palestinian group, it rejected an earlier Israeli offer that included a 45-day ceasefire in exchange for the return of 10 living hostages.
Four dead, 13 injured in Algeria landslide
- Four people have died and 13 others injured in a landslide in Algeria’s western coastal city of Oran, authorities said on Sunday
ALGIERS: Four people have died and 13 others injured in a landslide in Algeria’s western coastal city of Oran, authorities said on Sunday.
The landslide occurred late Saturday in the city’s Hai Essanouber district, the civil defense agency said.
It said the four “deceased were between five and 43 years old,” and that “13 other victims, aged between 12 and 75, suffered various injuries.”
Authorities did not comment on the reasons behind the landslide, which the interior ministry said “caused the collapse of five tin houses.”
With no one still missing from the landslide, the ministry said the death toll was “final.”
Gaza Health Ministry reports 51 deaths from Israeli strikes, bringing war toll to over 52,000
- Hospitals in the Gaza Strip have received the remains of 51 Palestinians over the past 24 hours, killed in Israeli strikes
DEIR AL-BALAH: Hospitals in the Gaza Strip received the remains of 51 Palestinians over the past 24 hours who were killed in Israeli strikes, the local Health Ministry said Sunday, bringing the Palestinian death toll from the 18-month-old Israel-Hamas war to 52,243.
The overall toll includes nearly 700 bodies for which the documentation process was recently completed, the ministry said in its latest update. The daily toll includes bodies retrieved from the rubble after earlier strikes.
Israel ended its ceasefire with Hamas by launching a surprise bombardment on March 18, and has been carrying out daily waves of strikes since then. Ground forces have expanded a buffer zone and encircled the southern city of Rafah, and now control around 50 percent of the territory.
Israel has also sealed off the territory’s 2 million Palestinians from all imports, including food and medicine, for nearly 60 days. Aid groups say supplies will soon run out and that thousands of children are malnourished.
Israeli authorities say the renewed offensive and tightened blockade are aimed at pressuring Hamas. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to continue the war until Hamas is destroyed or disarmed, and all the hostages are returned.
Hamas has said it will only release the remaining 59 hostages — 24 of whom are believed to be alive — in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, as called for in the now-defunct ceasefire reached in January.
Gaza’s Health Ministry says women and children make up most of the Palestinian deaths, but does not say how many were militants or civilians. It says another 117,600 people have been wounded in the war.
The overall tally includes 2,151 dead and 5,598 wounded since Israel resumed the war last month.
Israel says it has killed around 20,000 militants, without providing evidence. The military says it tries to avoid harming civilians and it blames Hamas for their deaths because the militants operate in densely populated areas.
Israel’s offensive has destroyed vast parts of Gaza and displaced around 90 percent of its population, leaving hundreds of thousands of people sheltering in squalid tent camps or bombed-out buildings.
Putin offers Iran Russian help after blast at Iranian port of Bandar Abbas
MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin has offered Iran Russian help in dealing with the aftermath of a blast that rocked the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas and expressed his condolences over the loss of life, the state RIA news agency reported on Sunday.
Iranian state media reported that a huge blast probably caused by the explosion of chemical materials killed at least 18 people and injured more than 700 on Saturday at Bandar Abbas, Iran’s biggest port.
