Report: Hezbollah Establishes Outpost in Israeli Territory

Israeli soldiers stand guard during ongoing maintenance work along the Lebanese border, near Avivim town in northern Israel on June 13, 2023. (Photo by JALAA MAREY / AFP)
Israeli soldiers stand guard during ongoing maintenance work along the Lebanese border, near Avivim town in northern Israel on June 13, 2023. (Photo by JALAA MAREY / AFP)
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Report: Hezbollah Establishes Outpost in Israeli Territory

Israeli soldiers stand guard during ongoing maintenance work along the Lebanese border, near Avivim town in northern Israel on June 13, 2023. (Photo by JALAA MAREY / AFP)
Israeli soldiers stand guard during ongoing maintenance work along the Lebanese border, near Avivim town in northern Israel on June 13, 2023. (Photo by JALAA MAREY / AFP)

The US is reportedly pressing the Lebanese government and military to take steps to dismantle a Hezbollah outpost established on the Israel-Lebanon border, Israeli and US officials told Axios news website on Friday.

The officials, who were not named by Axios, told the news website that Hezbollah established the outpost several weeks ago in Israeli territory.

According to a senior Israeli official, Hezbollah operatives set up a tent on April 8 in an area that is north of the border fence between Israel and Lebanon, but 30 meters south of the internationally recognized Blue Line in an area considered by the UN to be Israeli territory.

Not until weeks later, was the Israeli military aware of the tent in Israeli territory when the party added a second tent, a water tank and a generator to the outpost, he noted.

Officials in the US State Department and the Department of Defense (the Pentagon) had assured the UNIFIL forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL), the Lebanese government and army, of the need to evacuate the Hezbollah site, US and Israeli officials pointed out.

“Our goal is to move the outpost out of there. We prefer Hezbollah will do it themselves than to bomb it," Axios quoted a senior Israeli official as saying.

 



Iraq's Kurdish Oil Exports Restart is Not Imminent

An oil field in Iraqi Kurdistan. Photo: Kurdistan government media/AFP
An oil field in Iraqi Kurdistan. Photo: Kurdistan government media/AFP
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Iraq's Kurdish Oil Exports Restart is Not Imminent

An oil field in Iraqi Kurdistan. Photo: Kurdistan government media/AFP
An oil field in Iraqi Kurdistan. Photo: Kurdistan government media/AFP

A restart of Iraq's Kurdish oil exports is not imminent, sources close to the matter said on Friday, despite Iraq's federal government saying on Thursday that shipments would resume immediately.

Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government have been in negotiations since February to end a stand-off that has halted flows from the north of the country to Türkiye's port of Ceyhan. The KRG was producing about 435,000 barrels per day (bpd) before the pipeline closure in March 2023, Reuters reported.

On Thursday the federal government said that Iraqi Kurdistan would resume oil exports immediately through the pipeline to Türkiye's despite drone attacks that have shut down half of the region's output.

But on Friday a source at APIKUR, a group of oil companies working in Kurdistan, said that a restart depended on the receipt of written agreements. Another at KAR Group, which operates the pipeline, said that no preparations had been made for a restart.

Baghdad and the companies have not yet agreed how to restart the exports, a KRG government source said, while a source at Türkiye's Ceyhan said there was also no preparation at the terminal for a restart of flows.

On Thursday, a statement from KRG Prime Minister Masrour Barzani said the government had approved a joint understanding with the federal government and it was awaiting financial details.

Similar agreements in the past failed to secure a resumption in exports and it remains unclear if this deal will succeed.

Oil companies working in Kurdistan have previously demanded that their production-sharing contracts should remain unchanged and their debts of nearly $1 billion be settled under any agreement.

Oilfields in Iraqi Kurdistan have been attacked by drones this week, with officials pointing to Iran-backed militias as the likely source of the attacks, although no group has claimed responsibility.

They are the first such attacks on oilfields in the region and coincide with the first attacks in seven months on shipping in the Red Sea by Iran-aligned Houthi militants in Yemen.

On Thursday a strike hit an oilfield operated by Norway's DNO in Tawke, the region's counter-terrorism service said.

It was the week's second strike on a site operated by DNO, which operates the Tawke and Peshkabour oilfields in the Zakho area that borders Türkiye.

No casualties have been reported, but oil output in the region has been cut by between 140,000 bpd and 150,000 bpd, two energy officials said.