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National Iranian Oil Company to Open Office in Iraq

The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) will open an office in Iraq. (Reuters)
The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) will open an office in Iraq. (Reuters)
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National Iranian Oil Company to Open Office in Iraq

The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) will open an office in Iraq. (Reuters)
The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) will open an office in Iraq. (Reuters)

The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) will open an office in Iraq, the semi-official Fars News Agency said on Saturday.

The new office “will facilitate cooperation in the oil industry and the transfer of engineering and technical services” to Iraq, it said.

The announcement comes as Iran faces US sanctions on its oil exports.

Earlier, President Hassan Rouhani said Iran must counter the sanctions by continuing to export its oil as well as boosting non-oil exports.

His comments, carried live on Iranian TV, came a day after Washington acted to force Iran to stop producing low-enriched uranium and expanding its only nuclear power plant, intensifying a campaign aimed at halting its ballistic missile program and curbing its regional power.

“America is trying to decrease our foreign reserves ... So we have to increase our hard currency income and cut our currency expenditures,” Rouhani said.

“Last year, we had we non-oil exports of $43 billion. We should increase production and raise our (non-oil) exports and resist America’s plots against the sale of our oil.”

Friday’s move, which Rouhani made no direct reference to, was the third punitive US action taken against Iran in as many weeks.

Last week, it said it would stop waivers for countries buying Iranian oil, in an attempt to push Iran’s oil exports to zero. The United States also blacklisted Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Efforts by the Trump administration to impose political and economic isolation on Tehran began with last year’s US withdrawal from the nuclear deal it and other world powers negotiated with Iran in 2015.

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Türkiye Presses PKK to Disarm ‘Immediately’

An Iraqi Kurdish woman waves a flag bearing the portrait of the founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) Abdullah Ocalan as people gather at Freedom Park to listen to an audio message by the jailed leader in Sulaimaniyah, in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region on February 27, 2025. (AFP)
An Iraqi Kurdish woman waves a flag bearing the portrait of the founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) Abdullah Ocalan as people gather at Freedom Park to listen to an audio message by the jailed leader in Sulaimaniyah, in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region on February 27, 2025. (AFP)
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Türkiye Presses PKK to Disarm ‘Immediately’

An Iraqi Kurdish woman waves a flag bearing the portrait of the founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) Abdullah Ocalan as people gather at Freedom Park to listen to an audio message by the jailed leader in Sulaimaniyah, in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region on February 27, 2025. (AFP)
An Iraqi Kurdish woman waves a flag bearing the portrait of the founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) Abdullah Ocalan as people gather at Freedom Park to listen to an audio message by the jailed leader in Sulaimaniyah, in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region on February 27, 2025. (AFP)

Türkiye on Thursday insisted the PKK and all groups allied with it must disarm and disband "immediately", a week after a historic call by the Kurdish militant group's jailed founder.

"The PKK and all groups affiliated with it must end all terrorist activities, dissolve and immediately and unconditionally lay down their weapons," a Turkish defense ministry source said.

The remarks made clear the demand referred to all manifestations of Abdullah Ocalan's Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has led a four-decade insurgency against the Turkish state, costing tens of thousands of lives.

Although the insurgency targeted Türkiye, the PKK's leadership is based in the mountains of northern Iraq and its fighters are also part of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a key force in northeastern Syria.

Last week, Ocalan made a historic call urging the PKK to dissolve and his fighters to disarm, with the group on Saturday accepting his call and declaring a ceasefire.

The same day, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned that if the promises were not kept, Turkish forces would continue their anti-PKK operations.

"If the promises given are not kept and an attempt is made to delay... or deceive... we will continue our ongoing operations... until we eliminate the last terrorist," he said.

- Resonance in Syria, Iraq -

Since 2016, Türkiye has carried out three major military operations in northern Syria targeting PKK militants, which it sees as a strategic threat along its southern border.

Ankara has made clear it wants to see all PKK fighters disarmed wherever they are -- notably those in the US-backed SDF, which it sees as part of the PKK.

The SDF -- the bulk of which is made up of the Kurdish YPG -- spearheaded the fight that ousted ISIS extremists from Syria in 2019, and is seen by much of the West as crucial to preventing an extremist resurgence.

Last week, SDF leader Mazloum Abdi welcomed Ocalan's call for the PKK to lay down its weapons but said it "does not concern our forces" in northeastern Syria.

But Türkiye disagrees.

Since the toppling of Syria's Bashar al-Assad in December, Ankara has threatened military action unless YPG militants are expelled, deeming them to be a regional security problem.

"Our fundamental approach is that all terrorist organizations should disarm and be dissolved in Iraq and Syria, whether they are called the PKK, the YPG or the SDF," Omer Celik, spokesman for Erdogan's ruling AKP, said on Monday.

Ocalan's call also affects Iraq, with the PKK leadership holed up in the mountainous north where Turkish forces have staged multiple air strikes in recent years.

Turkish forces have also established numerous bases there, souring Ankara's relationship with Baghdad.

"We don't want either the PKK or the Turkish army on our land... Iraq wants everyone to withdraw," Iraq's national security adviser Qassem al-Araji told AFP.

"Turkish forces are (in Iraq) because of the PKK's presence," he said, while pointing out that Türkiye had "said more than once that it has no territorial ambitions in Iraq".