Iraqi Region Demands Separation from Basra

Iraqi demonstrators gather during an anti-government protest in front of the provincial building in Basra, Iraq December 14, 2018. REUTERS/Essam al-Sudani
Iraqi demonstrators gather during an anti-government protest in front of the provincial building in Basra, Iraq December 14, 2018. REUTERS/Essam al-Sudani
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Iraqi Region Demands Separation from Basra

Iraqi demonstrators gather during an anti-government protest in front of the provincial building in Basra, Iraq December 14, 2018. REUTERS/Essam al-Sudani
Iraqi demonstrators gather during an anti-government protest in front of the provincial building in Basra, Iraq December 14, 2018. REUTERS/Essam al-Sudani

The local council of Zubair district, west of Basra province, has voted unanimously to request turning the district into a province.

Council members believe the move aims at improving services and infrastructure and increasing the district’s powers.

However, a council member ruled out a decision in favor of the request, saying it comes as part of confusion taking place in general in Basra and the desire of some parties to obtain additional privileges.

Basra, the third largest province after Baghdad and Nineveh and the richest in terms of oil wealth, has been suffering for many years from lack of services, unemployment and poor infrastructure.

These circumstances have prompted citizens to demonstrate on a regular basis, especially with the beginning of summer and the rise in temperatures.

Poverty has also led to growing demands to either turn the district into a province or separate from Basra and become an independent province as is the case with the latest step taken by the district’s local council.

Authorities in Zubair stressed in a statement during a conference held on Monday for this purpose, the need to raise the district’s administrative level into a province upon popular demands and in line of Iraq’s laws.

A number of elders and dignitaries from the district participated in the conference.

The statement revealed that the local council made on Saturday an official request to the local and central governments, within the legal context, to raise the level of services, and improve construction projects and infrastructure.

“The population in Zubair district has exceeded one million people, and needs to develop,” the statement said.

Demands to turn the district into a province comes as part of the growing state of confusion and lack of prioritization in the country in general and Basra in particular, member of Basra Provincial Council Juma al-Zuwaini told Asharq Al-Awsat, saying the latest step taken by Zubair district will most likely fail.

He also accused the Basra Council of acting according to a partisan and sectarian agenda, noting that the problem lies in mismanagement and corruption and not in the administrative transfer of the region from a district to a province.

Zuwaini explained that Basra Province’s Council has the power to turn the administrative units into districts, but the transition into a province is the prerogative of the federal government.



Israel Ups Bombing in Central Gaza, Strikes Kill 17 People

27 November 2024, Palestinian Territories, Nuseirat: Palestinians inspect the al-Qassam Mosque and surrounding buildings where Israeli army attacked and caused a big destruction in the Nuseirat Refugee Camp in central Gaza. Photo: Omar Ashtawy  Apaimages/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
27 November 2024, Palestinian Territories, Nuseirat: Palestinians inspect the al-Qassam Mosque and surrounding buildings where Israeli army attacked and caused a big destruction in the Nuseirat Refugee Camp in central Gaza. Photo: Omar Ashtawy Apaimages/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
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Israel Ups Bombing in Central Gaza, Strikes Kill 17 People

27 November 2024, Palestinian Territories, Nuseirat: Palestinians inspect the al-Qassam Mosque and surrounding buildings where Israeli army attacked and caused a big destruction in the Nuseirat Refugee Camp in central Gaza. Photo: Omar Ashtawy  Apaimages/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
27 November 2024, Palestinian Territories, Nuseirat: Palestinians inspect the al-Qassam Mosque and surrounding buildings where Israeli army attacked and caused a big destruction in the Nuseirat Refugee Camp in central Gaza. Photo: Omar Ashtawy Apaimages/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa

Israeli military strikes killed at least 17 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, medics said, as forces stepped up bombardments on central areas and pushed tanks deeper in the north and south of the enclave.
Six people were killed in two separate air strikes on a house and near the hospital of Kamal Adwan in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip, while four others were killed when an Israeli strike hit a motorcycle in Khan Younis in the south, Reuters said.
In Nuseirat, one of the Gaza Strip's eight historic refugee camps, Israeli planes carried out several airstrikes destroying a multi-floor building and hitting roads outside mosques. At least seven people were killed in some of those strikes, health officials said.
Medics said at least two people, a woman and a child, were killed in tank shelling that hit western areas of Nuseirat, while an airstrike killed five others in a house nearby.
In Rafah, near the border with Egypt, tanks pushed deeper into the northern-west area of the city, residents said.
There has been no Israeli comment on the fighting in Gaza overnight and early Thursday.
Israel's 13-month campaign in Gaza, with the avowed intent of eradicating Hamas militants, has killed nearly 44,200 people and displaced nearly all the enclave's population at least once, according to Gaza officials. Vast swathes of the territory are in ruins.
The war was launched in response to an attack by Hamas-led fighters who killed around 1,200 people and captured more than 250 hostages in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Israel has said.
Months of attempts to negotiate a ceasefire have yielded scant progress, and negotiations are now on hold. Mediator Qatar has suspended its efforts until the sides are prepared to make concessions.
A ceasefire in the parallel conflict between Israel and Hamas' Lebanese ally Hezbollah took effect before dawn on Wednesday, bringing a halt to hostilities that had escalated sharply in recent months and overshadowed the conflict in Gaza.
Announcing the Lebanon accord on Tuesday, US President Joe Biden said he would now renew his push for an elusive agreement in Gaza, urging Israel and Hamas to seize the moment.