Key Takeaways:

• Neighbors Attend Water Conference In Baghdad; Halbousi Faces New Political Threats; PUK To End Its Boycott Of KRG Cabinet Meetings – On May 6, Iran’s Energy Minister and Syria’s Irrigation Minister visited Baghdad to participate in an international conference on water organized by the Iraqi government. Turkish ministers declined to attend and sent lower ranking officials instead. In his address to the conference, Sudani said that meetings with neighboring riparian states had focused on “the necessity of obtaining our full share of water” through diplomatic means, adding that “urgent international intervention” was needed to “save the Tigris and Euphrates.” On May 8, Sunni politician Mishan al-Jubouri said there were political movements to reshape the Siyada coalition to exclude Speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi. Jubouri stressed that the reformed Siyada would emerge with Khamis al-Khanjar as its sole leader. Meanwhile, a member of the Fatah coalition, a key faction within the Coordination Framework, claimed there was “political consensus” to remove Halbousi from office after parliament approves the federal budget bill. On May 10, a PUK official said the party will resume its participation in the KRG cabinet meetings (halted since December) as soon as next week. The news followed a meeting between the PUK’s Qubad Talabani and KDP’s Masrour Barzani, after which the two parties reportedly agreed to stop attacking each other in the media and discuss their differences regarding the rules for the upcoming regional election. In other development, on May 7, news reports said that the Interior Minister ordered the arrest of lieutenant general Ahmed Taha Hashim (Abu Ragheef) who was the head of the Committee to Investigate Corruption and Significant Crimes, (aka Committee 29), set up by former PM Mustafa al-Kadhimi. more…
• Court Sentences Hisham Al-Hashimi’s Convicted Killer To Death; U.S. Documents Implicate Iraqi Official In Iranian Arms Smuggling To Syria – On May 7, an Iraqi court found a key suspect in the 2020 assassination of prominent journalist and security analyst Hisham al-Hashimi to be guilty. The court senteced the convicted culprit, former police officer Ahmed Hamdawi Owayid (also Ahmed Maarij al-Kinani), to death. On May 7, a report by The Washington Post said that leaked U.S. intelligence that was posted on the message platform Discord showed that Iraqi militias facilitated the smuggling of weapons from Iran to Syria under the guise of humanitarian aid after a deadly earthquake earlier this year. The document says that Iranian officers instructed an Iraqi militia to “embed weapons within legitimate earthquake aid,” and points to the chief of staff of the Popular Mobilization Forces, Abu Fadak al-Mohammadawi, as part of the arms smuggling scheme. In other developments, between May 4 – 11, eleven ISIS militants and one Iraqi officer were killed in Iraqi airstrikes and clashes between militants and security forces in Kirkuk, Ninewa, Diyala, and Salah ad-Din provinces. more…
• New Border Crossing Established With Turkey; Halted Oil Exports From Kurdistan And Kirkuk Expected To Resume Within Days – On May 10, local officials in the Kurdistan region announced the opening of a new border crossing with Turkey. The new port of entry, called Zet, is located on the Iraqi side in the Mergasur district of Erbil province, and will initially be used for passengers and tourism traffic only. On May 11, the KRG Ministry of Natural Resources said that Iraq’s State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO) has sent official notice to Turkey asking it to resume Iraqi oil exports through the Turkish port of Ceyhan. On the same day, a senior Iraqi oil official said that SOMO has signed the first of four crude oil sale draft contracts with buyers of oil produced from the Kurdistan region and Kirkuk, adding that exports could resume within days once Turkey finishes inspecting and testing the export pipeline. In other developments, on May 8, Iraq’s Oil Ministry said that the Qayyarah oil field had resumed production and export operations after a long hiatus. Up to 30,000 bpd of oil will be transported to the export ports on the gulf using railcars and tanker trucks. On May 10, Iran’s Oil Minister, Javad Owji, visited Baghdad to discuss Iranian gas sales to Iraq and signed a memorandum of understanding for cooperation in the development of shared oil fields that straddle the international border between Iraq and Iran. more…

For more background on most of the institutions, key actors, political parties, and locations mentioned in our takeaways or in the stories that follow, see the ISHM Reference Guide.

Neighbors Attend Water Conference In Baghdad; Halbousi Faces New Political Threats; PUK To End Its Boycott Of KRG Cabinet Meetings

On May 5, Muqtada al-Sadr issued a warning to the political class in Iraq through a Friday prayer sermon delivered by one of his aides from the Kufa mosque in Najaf. The Sadrist preacher said the leading political figures in Iraq have been busy “enacting laws that serve their partisan, factional, and personal interests,” without offering specifics. The preacher added that Sadr’s political rivals have been doing this because Sadr has been “quiet” and advised them to “beware the anger of a patient man,” saying that the Sadrists are closely watching events on the political scene.  

On May 6, Cardinal Louis Sako accused Rayyan al-Kildani and his Babylon Movement group of “stealing the properties” of Christians in Baghdad and Ninewa. Speaking at a press conference, Sako also accused the Minister of Migration, Evan Faeq Jabro, who is a member of the Babylon Movement, of being part of a scheme by Kildani to “buy [the allegiance] of Chrstian clerics,” without providing further details. Sako, the most senior Christian religious leader in Iraq, added that Kildani and his groups had “hijacked the Christians’s quota” in parliament.  

On May 6, Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani met with the visiting Iranian Minister of Energy, Ali Akbar Mihrabian, and discussed Iran’s electricity exports to Iraq and water shares from transboundary rivers, according to a statement by Sudani’s office. Speaking at a press conference on Saturday, Mihrabian told reporters that Baghdad and Tehran have agreed to reconvene a bilateral water committee that had been suspended for some time, without providing further details. The Iranian official was in Baghdad to participate in an international conference on water that was organized by the Iraqi government. In his address to the conference, Prime Minister Sudani said that meetings with neighboring riparian states had focused on “the necessity of obtaining our full share of water” through diplomatic means, adding that “urgent international intervention” was needed to “save the Tigris and Euphrates” rivers from drought. According to a senior Iraqi water official, Syria had sent its Irrigation Minister to attend the conference, who signed an agreement with Iraq’s Water Resources Minister for technical cooperation on hydrological programs. Meanwhile, Turkish ministers declined to attend due to commitments related to elections in Turkey, and sent lower ranking officials instead. 

On May 7, security sources in Baghdad said that Interior Minister Abdul-Amir al-Shammari had issued orders to arrest lieutenant general Ahmed Taha Hashim (Abu Ragheef) as part of ongoing investigations, without providing further details. Abu Ragheef was the head of the Committee to Investigate Corruption and Significant Crimes, (aka Committee 29), that was set up by former Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi. In December, an investigative report by The Washington Post said there was evidence of torture and sexual abuse in an ani-corruption campaign spearheaded by Abu Ragheef’s team. 

On May 8, former member of parliament and Sunni politician Mishan al-Jubouri said that there were political movements to reshape the Siyada coalition to exclude Speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi. Jubouri stressed that the reformed Siyada would emerge with Khamis al-Khanjar as its sole leader, adding that this leadership supports Prime Minister Sudani’s approach in running the government and formulating the federal budget. Meanwhile, a member of the Fatah coalition, a key faction within the Coordination Framework, said there was “political consensus” to remove Halbousi from office after parliament approves the federal budget bill. The member, Ali al-Zubaidi, argued that Halbousi has had many “failures” and was “involved in corruption…in Anbar.” Zubaidi appears to be referring to recent allegations of corruption facing Halbousi’s ally and Anbar governor, Ali Farhan. The case is seen as a reflection of tensions between Halbousi and powerful factions within the Coordination Framework, especially since representative Hussein Monis, who’s affiliated with Kataib Hezbollah, appeared to be spearheading the push to prosecute Halbousi’s allies.   

On May 9, large crowds of government employees demonstrated at Tahrir Square in Baghdad demanding improvements to the public sector’s pay scale. The demonstration, the second to take place this month, demanded pay raises to cope with rising costs of living, and called for better income equality to reduce pay disparities among various government ministries. 

On May 10, Kurdistan24 reported that the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) had agreed to resume its participation in the meetings of the Kurdistan regional government (KRG). The PUK’s representatives would join the KRG cabinet meetings as soon as next week, according to senior PUK official, Sadi Pira. The PUK members of the KRG cabinet had been refusing to participate in cabinet meetings since December of last year over what the party described as the unilateral tendencies of the KDP in governing the region. The news followed a meeting between Deputy KRG Prime Minister Qubad Talabani and KRG Prime Minister Masrour Barzani, which pointed to a thaw in relations between Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and Talabani’s PUK. After the meeting, the two parties reportedly agreed to stop attacking each other in the media to prepare to discuss their differences regarding the rules for the upcoming regional election, sent for November 18, 2023. The PUK has been pushing for updating the voter registry to correct alleged discrepancies that favor its rival KDP, and insists on dividing the Kurdistan region in several, province-sized electoral districts.

On May 10, the State Administration Alliance, which comprises the major parties in government, said in a statement that May 17th has been designated as a “tentative date” for parliament to vote on the federal budget bill.

The sources cited in this section include: Shafaq, al-Sumaria, NINA, Iraqi PM’s office, Rudaw, ISHM archives, Kurdistan24, NRT, al-Araby, PUKMedia. 

Court Sentences Hisham Al-Hashimi’s Convicted Killer To Death; U.S. Documents Implicate Iraqi Official In Iranian Arms Smuggling To Syria

On May 4, Iraq’s Joint Operations Command (JOC) said that an airstrike by Iraqi F-16 jets had killed three ISIS militants and destroyed their hideouts in the Wadi al-Shay region of southern Kirkuk. To the northwest, near al-Hadhar in Ninewa province, the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) said on May 5 that a unit from its 57th brigade killed three ISIS militants in an assault targeting a tunnel where the militants had been hiding. Another JOC statement on May 8 said that a second airstrike targeted another group of ISIS militants in the Sindij region of Diyala province on Saturday May 6. The airstrike killed at least two ISIS militants who had been active in Diyala and Kirkuk.

On May 7, an Iraqi court in Baghdad issued a verdict in the trial of a key suspect in the 2020 assassination of prominent journalist and security analyst Hisham al-Hashimi. According to a statement by the Supreme Judicial Council, the Rusafa Criminal Court found the suspect, Ahmed Hamdawi Owayid (also Ahmed Maarij al-Kinani), guilty and sentenced him to death. The whereabouts of Hashimi’s convicted killer has been in question in recent months. In March, Iraqi news sites circulated a letter addressed from Iraq’s Ministry of Justice to a member of parliament who had made an inquiry about Kinani, saying he was not present in any of the ministry’s holding facilities. Kinani was arrested in July of 2021 and made a televised confession about his role in the assassination. He was identified as a police officer who worked in the Interior Ministry, and was involved with “rogue” groups. 

On May 7, a report by The Washington Post said that leaked U.S. intelligence that was posted on the message platform Discord showed that Iraqi militias facilitated the smuggling of weapons from Iran to Syria under the guise of humanitarian aid in the aftermath of a deadly earthquake earlier this year.  Within a day after the catastrophic February 6 earthquake, an Iraqi militia “allegedly orchestrated the transfer of rifles, ammunition and 30 UAVs hidden in aid convoys to support future attacks on U.S. forces in Syria,” the intelligence document said. The document also says that a week later, Iranian officers instructed an Iraqi militia to “embed weapons within legitimate earthquake aid,” and points to the chief of staff of the Popular Mobilization Forces, Abu Fadak al-Mohammadawi, as part of the arms smuggling scheme.

On May 8, security sources in Kirkuk province said that ISIS militants had kidnapped a sheep herder from an area near Wadi al-Shay, in southern Kirkuk, without providing further details. 

On May 9, security sources in Baghdad said that gunmen, believed to be ISIS militants, shot and killed a civilian after breaking into his residence in the Tarmiyah district, north of the capital. 

On May 9, Ninewa police said that a legacy improvised explosive device (IED) detonated in al-Kubba, an area outside the Sinjar district, west of Mosul. The explosion killed a sheep herder who was close to the explosion and wounded another person. 

On May 11, the Security Media Cell reported that ISIS militants attacked an Iraqi federal police checkpoint in al-Mutasim subdistrict in Salah ad-Din province, killing one Iraqi officer. Security forces from nearby areas responded to the attack and engaged the militants, killing three of them.

On May 11, security sources in Maysan province said that the brother of a prominent activist was killed in an armed attack in the al-Qadisiyah neighborhood of central Amara. The activist, Akram Athab, accused government forces of killing his brother, who was visiting Maysan from Baghdad on a business trip. According to Athab, the killers arrived at the scene in three government-issued vehicles. 

The sources cited in this section include: al-Sumaria, Shafaq, INA, Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council, The Washington Post, NINA.

New Border Crossing Established With Turkey; Halted Oil Exports From Kurdistan And Kirkuk Expected To Resume Within Days

On May 8, Iraq’s Oil Ministry said that the Qayyarah oil field in Ninewa province had resumed production and export operations after a long hiatus. According to a statement by the Ministry, up to 30,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil will be transported to the export ports on the gulf using railcars and tanker trucks. An additional 3,000 bpd will be supplied to the nearby Qayyarah refinery for processing. According to news reports tracked by ISHM, exports from the field, operated by Angola’s Sonangol, had been suspended since the fall of 2021. 

On May 9, the KRG Finance Ministry said that the federal government had sent a new payment of IQD400 billion to help the KRG pay civil servants salaries. Last month, KRG officials said the federal government had decided to continue to send these payments on a monthly basis until parliament approves the proposed 2023 federal budget. 

On May 10, local officials in the Kurdistan region of Iraq announced the opening of a new border crossing with Turkey. The new port of entry, called Zet, is located on the Iraqi side in the Mergasur district of Erbil province, and will initially be used for passengers and tourism traffic only. Commercial transit of goods will begin after the facility is expanded at a later stage, according to the officials. 

On May 10, Iran’s Oil Minister, Javad Owji, visited Baghdad and met with Iraq’s Electricity Minister, Ziyad Ali Fadhil. The two ministers discussed the state of Iranian natural gas sales to Iraq ahead of the hot summer season, a statement by the Electricity Ministry said. During his visit, the Iranian minister and his Iraqi counterpart signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) concerning cooperation in the development of shared oil fields that straddle the international border between Iraq and Iran. According to an Iraqi government statement, the MoU also deals with the handling of associated gas from oil field development, cooperation in petrochemical projects, and the training of oil and gas workers.

On May 11, the KRG Ministry of Natural Resources said that the Iraqi government, through the State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO) has sent official notice to Turkey asking the latter to resume Iraqi oil exports through the Turkish port of Ceyhan. On the same day, a senior Iraqi oil official said that SOMO has signed the first of four crude oil sale draft contracts with buyers of oil produced from the Kurdistan region and Kirkuk, adding that exports could resume within days once Turkey finishes inspecting and testing the export pipeline. The exports have been halted since March 25, after Iraq won an arbitration case against Turkey for violating the Iraq-Turkey export pipeline treaty by allowing the KRG to export oil without Baghdad’s consent. Iraq’s Ministry of Oil and the KRG Ministry of Natural Resources had signed a temporary agreement on April 4 to resume oil flow, which included some 500,000 barrels per day from fields in Kurdistan as well as Kirkuk. 

The sources cited in this section include: INA, Kurdistan24, Rudaw, Shafaq, ISHM archives, Iraqi PM’s office, Mawazin.

Derived from firsthand accounts and Iraq-based Arabic and Kurdish news sources, the Iraq Security and Humanitarian Monitor is a free publication of the Enabling Peace in Iraq Center.

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