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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

Over 100,000 Worshippers Perform Friday Prayers at Al-Aqsa

Muslim worshippers pray outside the Dome of the Rock at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound during Friday noon prayers, following 40 days of closure by the Israeli authorities, in Jerusalem's Old City on April 10, 2026. (AFP)
Muslim worshippers pray outside the Dome of the Rock at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound during Friday noon prayers, following 40 days of closure by the Israeli authorities, in Jerusalem's Old City on April 10, 2026. (AFP)
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Over 100,000 Worshippers Perform Friday Prayers at Al-Aqsa

Muslim worshippers pray outside the Dome of the Rock at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound during Friday noon prayers, following 40 days of closure by the Israeli authorities, in Jerusalem's Old City on April 10, 2026. (AFP)
Muslim worshippers pray outside the Dome of the Rock at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound during Friday noon prayers, following 40 days of closure by the Israeli authorities, in Jerusalem's Old City on April 10, 2026. (AFP)

More than 100,000 Muslim worshippers performed Friday prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in east Jerusalem, the holy site's Islamic authority reported, after it reopened the previous day following a truce agreed between the United States and Iran.

Jerusalem's Old City is home to major holy sites for all three Abrahamic religions, which had been shuttered since the start of the war sparked by the US-Israeli attack on Iran on February 28.

Within the Old City lie the Al-Aqsa Mosque for Muslims, the Western Wall for Jews, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for Christians -- all located in East Jerusalem, a territory occupied and annexed by Israel.

The sites reopened to worshippers on Thursday, a day after Washington and Tehran declared a two-week ceasefire in the Middle East war.

Muslim worshippers had been unable to access the Al-Aqsa even during the holy month of Ramadan this year.

On Friday, more than 100,000 Muslims performed the weekly Friday prayer at Al-Aqsa, according to the Islamic Waqf, the Jordanian body that administers the site.

AFPTV live footage showed the compound packed with worshippers.

"Hopefully they will not close Al-Aqsa again, and everyone will be able to come to this holy place -whether residents of Jerusalem or from the West Bank," said 30-year-old Mohammad Saaedeh.

Palestinians from the Israeli-occupied West Bank remain subject to strict Israeli restrictions based on age and permit quotas.

"Friday prayer is an obligation for us, but performing it at Al-Aqsa is something entirely different," said Sharif Mohammad, 39, referring to the site's status as Islam's third-holiest shrine.

"It's an indescribable feeling," added Ahmad Ammar, 55.

Beyond the reopening of the holy sites in Jerusalem, the Israeli authorities have lifted most of the restrictions linked to the state of emergency over the war with Iran.

This excludes the country's northern border area near Lebanon, where the war against Iran-backed Hezbollah continues.

Arab World

Lebanon Says Israeli Attack Killed 13 State Security Personnel in Nabatieh

Flames and smoke engulf part of the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the Lebanese State Security Center, in the Southern Lebanese city of Nabatieh on April 10 2026. (AFP)
Flames and smoke engulf part of the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the Lebanese State Security Center, in the Southern Lebanese city of Nabatieh on April 10 2026. (AFP)
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Lebanon Says Israeli Attack Killed 13 State Security Personnel in Nabatieh

Flames and smoke engulf part of the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the Lebanese State Security Center, in the Southern Lebanese city of Nabatieh on April 10 2026. (AFP)
Flames and smoke engulf part of the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the Lebanese State Security Center, in the Southern Lebanese city of Nabatieh on April 10 2026. (AFP)

Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun said on Friday that 13 state security ‌personnel ‌were killed ‌in an ⁠Israeli strike on ⁠a governmental building in the southern city ⁠of ‌Nabatieh.

In a ‌statement, Aoun ‌condemned ‌continued Israeli attacks and said targeting ‌state institutions would not ⁠deter ⁠Lebanon from defending its sovereignty.

Naim Qassem, head of Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah, called on the Lebanese state to stop giving "free concessions" to Israel, with the two governments due to begin negotiations next week to end the war that has left nearly 1,900 people in Lebanon dead.

The government banned Hezbollah's military activities at the beginning of the latest war with Israel in March and is moving towards bilateral negotiations with Israel despite the opposition of Hezbollah, which is represented in the cabinet and parliament.

The state-run National News Agency (NNA) said "enemy warplanes launched a series of heavy strikes" on Nabatiyeh, including one in the vicinity of the government complex hitting the State Security office.

An AFP photographer saw extensive damage at the site, where a fire was still raging.

- Diplomatic scramble -

As the government prepared for talks with Israel in Washington, outside the auspices of the US-Iran talks in Islamabad, Qassem called on officials "to stop offering free concessions" and described Israel's military campaign as a failure.

"The Israeli enemy has failed on the battlefield... It has been unable to carry out the ground invasion it repeatedly announced," he said, adding that "the resistance will continue until the last breath".

More than 300 people, mostly civilians according to a Lebanese military source, were killed in a wave of simultaneous Israeli strikes on Lebanon on Wednesday despite the announcement hours earlier of a truce between the United States and Iran, with Israel and the US saying it did not apply to Lebanon.

Iran has insisted on including Lebanon in its ceasefire negotiations with the US.

- Quiet in Beirut -

On Thursday afternoon, the Israeli military issued a warning of incoming strikes for large, densely populated areas of southern Beirut, but had not carried out the threat as of Friday, with a Western diplomat telling AFP Friday that European and Arab states are pressuring Israel to stop targeting Beirut.

The Western diplomat, who asked to remain anonymous in order to discuss sensitive matters, said on Friday that "there is ongoing diplomatic pressure from European states, Gulf states and Egypt on Israel to prevent renewed Israeli airstrikes on Beirut after 'Black Wednesday'".

Thursday's Israeli warning included areas home to major hospitals and the road to the country's only international airport.

Public Works and Transport Minister Fayez Rasamny said, in a statement carried by the state-run National News Agency (NNA) on Thursday, that he had "received assurances" from foreign diplomats that the airport and the road leading to it would be spared.

Meanwhile, Mohammad Zaatari, director of the country's largest public medical facility, Rafic Hariri Hospital, told AFP: "We have received assurances, including from the International Committee of the Red Cross that the hospital would not be targeted."

The World Health Organization on Thursday called on Israel to cancel its evacuation warning for the Jnah district of Beirut because around 450 patients were in the Rafic Hariri and Al-Zahraa hospitals in the district, including 40 in intensive care.

The Israeli military said on Friday it had "dismantled" more than 4,300 Hezbollah sites in Lebanon and killed "more than 1,400" Hezbollah fighters.

Hezbollah, for its part, claimed several rocket launches on northern Israel, as well as attacks on Israeli troops advancing in the border area.

Hezbollah also said it targeted a naval base in the southern Israeli city of Ashdod on Friday, far from the border, with missiles.

Arab World

Israel’s Zamir: Lebanon is the Main Combat Arena

First responders gather at the site of an Israeli airstrike in the village of Habbouch, southern Lebanon on April 10, 2026. (Photo by Abbas FAKIH / AFP)
First responders gather at the site of an Israeli airstrike in the village of Habbouch, southern Lebanon on April 10, 2026. (Photo by Abbas FAKIH / AFP)
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Israel’s Zamir: Lebanon is the Main Combat Arena

First responders gather at the site of an Israeli airstrike in the village of Habbouch, southern Lebanon on April 10, 2026. (Photo by Abbas FAKIH / AFP)
First responders gather at the site of an Israeli airstrike in the village of Habbouch, southern Lebanon on April 10, 2026. (Photo by Abbas FAKIH / AFP)

The head of Israel’s military, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, has said that the “main combat arena is in Lebanon.”

The mission is to keep weakening Hezbollah, Zamir said.

He was speaking on Thursday to Israeli troops inside Lebanon, on the outskirts of the town of Bint Jbeil.

“Our main combat arena is here in Lebanon,” he stated.

Zamir said the army’s mission is to “continue deepening the damage and to continue weakening Hezbollah.”

He added that the objective is to remove the direct threat to residents of northern Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has offered a potential boost to ceasefire efforts in the region when saying he had approved direct talks with Lebanon.

The announcement came after Israel’s pounding of Beirut Wednesday killed more than 300 people. The negotiations are expected next week in Washington.