Afrin and Qamishli could become transit hubs in two major regional rail corridors
A major shift may be underway around two Syrian Kurdish border geographies: Afrin in the west and Qamishli in the…
The Pipeline Deal That Could Remake Iraq’s Oil Map
The 1973 Iraq-Turkey crude oil pipeline agreement, last renewed in 2010, terminates on July 27. Turkey gave formal notice of…
Iraq’s April Oil Revenue: Official Data Confirms a Deeper Drop Than Projected
Iraq’s Oil Ministry has released the official export figures for April, and they land below even the cautious projections we…
Written by
Arivan
Iraq’s Oil Revenue Has Collapsed. The Question Now Is How Long the State Can Hold.
Iraq entered April having already recorded its worst monthly oil export figure in recent memory. March revenues had fallen to roughly $2 billion on 18 million barrels exported – a…
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Arivan
Turkey, Syria, and Iraq edge toward a rail corridor that bypasses the KRG
On April 4, 2026, Turkish Transportation Minister Abdulkadir Uraloğlu announced that Ankara will revive “the railway line from Nusaybin to Qamishli, thus connecting to both Syria and Iraq,” noting that…
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Written by
Arivan
Iraq’s Oil Exports Collapsed by 82% in March as SOMO Scrambles to Build Emergency Alternatives
The war’s first full month wiped out most of Iraq’s seaborne export capacity. The patchwork of fallback routes Baghdad assembled kept some revenue flowing, but March’s earnings covered less than…
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Written by
Arivan
The Pipeline Card: Why the KRG’s Strongest Lever May Be Its Most Dangerous
Iraq’s oil minister said today that Kirkuk crude would be re-exported within a week through the old federal Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline “without passing through the Kurdistan Region,” after the KRG refused…
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Arivan
KRG Civil Servants Owed $21bn After Decade of Delayed and Partial Salaries
The KRG owes its public sector workforce an estimated 30.8 trillion Iraqi dinars, approximately $21 billion, in unpaid wages, withheld salary increases, and accumulated arrears built up over eleven years…
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Written by
Arivan
Iraq’s Customs War Is Quietly Rerouting Trade and Draining Kurdistan’s Gateways
Customs revenue at the Kurdistan Region’s border crossings has collapsed by fifty percent, and traders across northern Iraq now face the punishing reality of paying duties twice on the same…
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Written by
Arivan
Iraq Posts 8.8 Trillion Dinar Deficit in First Nine Months of 2025 as Wage Bill and Pensions Surge
Iraq’s Ministry of Finance close the first three quarters of 2025 with a budget deficit of 8.81 trillion dinars, as total government expenditure of 99.98 trillion dinars outstripped revenues of…
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