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Iraq’s Kurdistan Works to Establish Two Oil Firms as Erbil-Baghdad Tensions Rise

A picture shows a view of the area around the citadel of Erbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, as dust engulfs the sector on May 24, 2022. (AFP)
A picture shows a view of the area around the citadel of Erbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, as dust engulfs the sector on May 24, 2022. (AFP)
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Iraq’s Kurdistan Works to Establish Two Oil Firms as Erbil-Baghdad Tensions Rise

A picture shows a view of the area around the citadel of Erbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, as dust engulfs the sector on May 24, 2022. (AFP)
A picture shows a view of the area around the citadel of Erbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, as dust engulfs the sector on May 24, 2022. (AFP)

Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is working to establish two oil firms, the latest move in the battle between Erbil and Baghdad to control the oil sector in the semi-autonomous region.

The KRG's new oil firm KROC would specialize in oil exploration, while the second - KOMO - would focus on oil exports and marketing from the semi-autonomous region, a spokesperson said in a statement on Friday.

The regional government has presented the idea and discussed it with the federal government in Baghdad recently, the KRG spokesperson said in a statement.

The statement follows months of disputes between Erbil and Baghdad after a February federal court ruling that deemed the legal foundations of the Kurdistan region's oil and gas sector unconstitutional.

The oil ministry in Baghdad has since made fresh attempts to control revenue from the Kurdistan region, including summoning seven firms operating there to a commercial court on May 19. The firms were Addax, DNO, Genel, Gulf Keystone, HKN, Shamaran and WesternZagros.

The commercial court sitting has been postponed twice as some of the representation for these international oil firms did not have power of attorney, several sources told Reuters. The court session is due to resume on Monday, June 20.

As well as announcing plans to establish its own oil company in the Kurdistan region, the Iraqi oil ministry has ordered international lead contractors and subcontractors through Basrah Oil (BOC) and Iraq's national oil firm (Inoc) to pledge not to work on contracts or projects there.

Through letters sent on June 7 and 12, the firms were given three months to terminate existing contracts or projects in the KRG oil sector or face being blacklisted, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

The oil ministry is using two law firms - Vincent and Elkins and Cleary Gottlieb Steen and Hamilton - to help with gaining control of the KRG oil sector, according to two sources. Both firms have declined to comment.

The KRG has repeatedly rejected the federal court ruling. On June 5, the KRG's ministry of natural resources filed a civil suit against the minister of oil in Baghdad, Ihsan Ismael, for sending emails and letters to intimidate oil firms operating in the Kurdistan region and for interfering with the contractual rights of these firms and the KRG, according to a June 13 statement.

Also on June 5, the Erbil court of investigation ruled that the commercial court sessions against international oil firms must be brought to the Erbil court.

There have been years of attempts by the federal government to bring KRG revenues under its control, including local court rulings and threats of international arbitration.

The implications of the latest dispute are not fully clear as more than eight months since elections in Iraq, the formation of a government is still underway.

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Arab World

UN Experts Call for Investigation into Israel's Killing of Lebanese Journalists

A woman sits in a cemetery before the funeral of Lebanese journalists, Al Manar reporter Ali Shoeib, Al Mayadeen reporter Fatima Ftouni and cameraman Mohammed Ftouni, who were killed by a targeted Israeli strike, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israeli conflict with Iran continues, in Choueifat, Lebanon, March 29, 2026. (Reuters)
A woman sits in a cemetery before the funeral of Lebanese journalists, Al Manar reporter Ali Shoeib, Al Mayadeen reporter Fatima Ftouni and cameraman Mohammed Ftouni, who were killed by a targeted Israeli strike, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israeli conflict with Iran continues, in Choueifat, Lebanon, March 29, 2026. (Reuters)
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UN Experts Call for Investigation into Israel's Killing of Lebanese Journalists

A woman sits in a cemetery before the funeral of Lebanese journalists, Al Manar reporter Ali Shoeib, Al Mayadeen reporter Fatima Ftouni and cameraman Mohammed Ftouni, who were killed by a targeted Israeli strike, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israeli conflict with Iran continues, in Choueifat, Lebanon, March 29, 2026. (Reuters)
A woman sits in a cemetery before the funeral of Lebanese journalists, Al Manar reporter Ali Shoeib, Al Mayadeen reporter Fatima Ftouni and cameraman Mohammed Ftouni, who were killed by a targeted Israeli strike, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israeli conflict with Iran continues, in Choueifat, Lebanon, March 29, 2026. (Reuters)

UN experts on Thursday called for an international investigation into the death of three Lebanese journalists in an Israeli strike, saying Israel had not provided "credible evidence" of their alleged links to armed groups.

The three journalists, including Ali Shoeib, a star correspondent for Al Manar channel of Hezbollah, which is at war with Israel, were killed on March 28 in an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon.

"We denounce strongly what has now become a standard, dangerous practice of Israel to target and kill journalists and then claim, without providing any credible evidence, that they were involved with armed groups," the experts said in a statement.

The Israeli army had described Shoeib as a member of the Radwan force, an elite Hezbollah unit, operating "under the guise of a journalist".

According to the experts, Israel's only so-called "evidence" for its claims was a photoshopped image of the journalist.

Israel also confirmed it killed journalist Fatima Ftouni of Al Mayadeen, seen as close to Hezbollah, and her brother cameraman Mohammed Ftouni, describing him as "an additional terrorist in Hezbollah's military wing".

The experts argued that working as a journalist for a media outlet linked to an armed group does not constitute direct participation in hostilities under international humanitarian law.

"Israeli officials know this, yet they choose to ignore it -- emboldened by impunity for their previous killings of journalists in Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank."

At least 231 journalists and media workers have been killed by Israel since 2023, including 210 in Gaza and 11 in Lebanon, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

Although appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council, special rapporteurs are independent experts and do not speak on behalf of the UN.

Arab World

European Nations Say Israel, Hezbollah Fighting ‘Must Cease’

A man stands atop the rubble as smoke rises from a building destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in Dahieh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, March 14, 2026. (AP)
A man stands atop the rubble as smoke rises from a building destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in Dahieh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, March 14, 2026. (AP)
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European Nations Say Israel, Hezbollah Fighting ‘Must Cease’

A man stands atop the rubble as smoke rises from a building destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in Dahieh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, March 14, 2026. (AP)
A man stands atop the rubble as smoke rises from a building destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in Dahieh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, March 14, 2026. (AP)

Eighteen European countries on Thursday urged Israel and Hezbollah to stop fighting as their latest conflict reached one month and with fears over Israeli plans to occupy part of southern Lebanon post-war. 

"Israeli military operations in Lebanon and Hezbollah's attacks must cease," the foreign ministers of the countries including Italy, Spain, Belgium, Poland and Ireland said in a joint statement. 

"We urge Israel to fully respect Lebanon's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and call on all parties, both Hezbollah and Israel, to halt military action," the statement said. 

Lebanon was sucked into the Middle East war after Tehran-backed Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel to avenge the US-Israeli attack that killed Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei. 

Israel has responded with massive strikes across Lebanon and a ground offensive. 

Lebanese authorities say the hostilities have so far killed more than 1,200 people and displaced more than one million others. 

The European ministers said they were "appalled by the dramatic situation" in Lebanon and called for an end to "unjustified and unacceptable" attacks on civilian targets such as healthcare personnel, aid workers and journalists. 

They pledged to continue providing humanitarian relief for the Lebanese population and called on the international community "to mobilize further" to help the country. 

Earlier this week, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the country's military would occupy a swathe of southern Lebanon even after the current war against Hezbollah has ended. 

The comments have raised fears for the area's fate following the last Israeli occupation that lasted nearly two decades. 

The European nations "strongly encouraged" Israel to hold direct negotiations with the Lebanese authorities and said reform efforts by Lebanon's government "must be supported instead of being undermined". 

"Efforts to support stabilization in Lebanon are instrumental to lasting peace and security in the Middle East. De-escalation is urgently needed. Diplomacy must prevail," they said. 

The countries include Spain, Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Italy, Ireland, Latvia, Luxembourg, Moldova, Norway, Poland, San Marino, Slovenia and Sweden. 

Arab World

War Crimes Complaint Filed in France Over 2024 Deadly Israeli Strike in Beirut

A photographs shows damaged buildings following an overnight Israeli airstrike in the Hadath neighborhood of Beirut's southern suburbs, on April 1, 2026. (AFP)
A photographs shows damaged buildings following an overnight Israeli airstrike in the Hadath neighborhood of Beirut's southern suburbs, on April 1, 2026. (AFP)
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War Crimes Complaint Filed in France Over 2024 Deadly Israeli Strike in Beirut

A photographs shows damaged buildings following an overnight Israeli airstrike in the Hadath neighborhood of Beirut's southern suburbs, on April 1, 2026. (AFP)
A photographs shows damaged buildings following an overnight Israeli airstrike in the Hadath neighborhood of Beirut's southern suburbs, on April 1, 2026. (AFP)

A complaint filed Thursday in France seeks a war crimes investigation into an Israeli strike on a Beirut apartment building in November 2024 said to have killed seven civilians including the parents of a French-Lebanese artist, a human rights group said.

The artist, Ali Cherri, and the International Federation for Human Rights, or FIDH, said the complaint was filed with France’s war crimes unit in Paris against unknown perpetrators over the strike in Beirut’s Noueiri neighborhood, just hours before a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect.

The human rights group said the strike hit at about 5:30 p.m. and destroyed a ninth-floor apartment owned by Cherri, as well as apartments on the seventh and eighth floors. The group identified the dead as Cherri’s parents, Mahmoud Naim Cherri and Nadira Hayek, and domestic worker Birki Negesa, among others.

“We want an investigation to help us clear up the facts and understand why civilians were targeted in this horrific way,” Cherri told The Associated Press.

The filing argues that the bombing of a civilian building could constitute a war crime under French criminal law and international humanitarian law. FIDH said it draws in part on analysis by human rights groups Forensic Architecture and Amnesty International.

Amnesty International said Thursday it supported the case and that its own investigation found no evidence of a military objective in or near the building at the time of the strike. It also said civilians received no effective advance warning and that the attack should be investigated as a war crime.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry referred questions about the case to Israel’s military, which did not immediately respond Thursday, a religious holiday in Israel. Israel’s military has previously said it follows international legal norms and strikes only legitimate military targets.

On the day after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel triggered the war in Gaza, the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel in support of Hamas and the Palestinians. Israel responded with airstrikes and shelling. The low-level conflict escalated into full-scale war in September 2024.

Around 4,000 people were killed in Lebanon during that conflict while 47 Israeli civilians and more than 80 Israeli soldiers were killed before the Nov. 2024 ceasefire.

Since the US and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, a new war has erupted between Israel and Hezbollah. On March 2, Hezbollah began firing salvos of missiles across the border.

Israel has since launched aerial bombardment of large swathes of Lebanon and launched a ground invasion. More than 1,200 people have been killed and more than a million displaced in Lebanon to date.

According to FIDH, French courts do not have jurisdiction over the killings themselves because the dead were not French nationals. But it said Cherri’s dual French-Lebanese nationality gives French authorities jurisdiction to investigate the bombing of the apartment he owned.

The group also said no legal proceedings had been initiated in Lebanon or abroad to date over the attack.

“It’s going to be a long process, and probably with no cooperation from the Israelis,” Cherri said. “But it’s important to seek justice and to stop the cycle of impunity.”

Cherri, a Paris-based artist and filmmaker originally from Beirut, has said he is seeking recognition and accountability over the attack that killed his family members and other civilians.