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Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) The Iraqi Minister of Oil, Hayan Abdul-Ghani, announced that Iraq decided to extend the oil production cut of 211,000 barrels per day until December 2024 as a necessary protective measure, in coordination with member states in the OPEC+ agreement.

Abdul-Ghani indicated that countries taking part in the OPEC+ agreement announced last April that they were intending to reduce oil production, according to a statement issued by the Ministry of Oil.

Member countries in OPEC+ agreed on a voluntary oil production cut during their 35th ministerial meeting held on Sunday in the Austrian capital, Vienna.

Russias Minister of Energy revealed his countrys intention to extend its voluntary oil production cut of 500,000 barrels per day until December 2024.

The OPEC+ alliance approved reducing the level of oil production to 40.46 million barrels per day, starting in 2024.

Saudi Arabia will make a deep cut to its output in July on top of a broader OPEC+ deal to limit supply into 2024 as the group seeks to boost flagging oil prices, according to Reuters.

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Iraq extends daily oil production cut until end of 2024 - Iraqi News

Iraq has announced an ambitious plan for the construction of a 1,200-km railway line and parallel motorway that will link its ports on the Arabian Gulf with Europe through neighbouring Turkey.

Prime Minister Mohamed Shia Al-Sudani announced the $17 billion project dubbed Development Road during a gathering of Transport Ministry representatives from several neighbouring countries on 27 May.

The implementation of this strategic project will consolidate regional economic cooperation in the interest of its countries and peoples, Al-Sudani wrote in an article published in a Saudi newspaper a few days before the launch.

There are few details about the massive infrastructure project or its foreign and economic feasibility, but it may be related to Iraqs intentions to strengthen its partnerships throughout the Middle East.

Motivated by the countrys pressing domestic and foreign challenges, successive governments in post US-invasion Iraq have battled to reintegrate the country fully into the region and shield it from outside interference.

But as has so often been the case over the last two decades, Iraqs repeated efforts to reconnect with the region have been met by its neighbours pressing geopolitical concerns and economic interests.

Iraqs initiative to build the railway line and road that will link the country with Turkey will likely focus on neighbouring and foreign powers that have stakes in emerging multi-modal corridors that could eventually link East Asia with Europe.

The project, which will start from the southern Al-Faw Peninsula in Iraq, also includes the construction of around 15 train stations along the route, including in the major cities of Basra, Baghdad, and Mosul, and end up at the Turkish border.

Once it is completed, Iraq hopes the duel route will turn the country into a regional commercial transit hub. It will give it access to the Turkish port of Mersin and then Istanbul and Europe.

Iraq also hopes the new route will improve international trade by shortening the time taken to cover the distance between East Asia and Europe by half.

Iraqi officials have said the project will be awarded to Frances transport giant Alstom, which is also expected to build Baghdads first elevated metro line. The Italian company Progetti Europa & Global has worked as a consultant on different stages of the project and is supervising its timetable.

The Al-Faw Port on the northern tip of the Arabian Gulf is the logistical linchpin of the project. South Koreas Daewoo is constructing Phase 1 of the port under a $2.65 billion contract awarded in 2020. Work is to be completed in 2025, when the port will begin operations at a capacity of 20 to 45 million tons of goods per year.

The construction of the port has raised tensions with Kuwait, which had started building its own Mubarak Al-Kabeer Port on the other side of the Gulf. The multi-billion megaproject is an essential part of Kuwaits Vision 2035 Strategy, and the emirate hopes to link it with Chinas Belt and Road Initiative projects.

With its container docks, deep-water harbour, free-trade zone, rail network, and resort, the port will make Kuwait into a leading financial and trade centre in the region.

Iraq fears that the Kuwaiti project will turn into a pivotal financial and trading hub at the expense of its own Development Road, which it also hopes will be part of Chinas Belt and Road Initiative.

There has been no word from Turkey on the plans, even though the country has its own strategy regarding east-west connectivity. Turkey is also seeking to be an energy hub and a transit distribution centre serving Europe.

Turkish Ambassador to Iraq Ali Riza Guney, who attended the Baghdad meeting where the Iraqi project was announced along with officials from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Jordan, Iran and Syria, said that the Iraqi Development Road will boost interdependence between the countries of the region.

Iran, meanwhile, is devising its own regional strategic corridor linking East Asia and Europe through a railway line connecting the Arabian Gulf to the Mediterranean. The Islamic Republic has announced ambitious plans to build a railway line that would run from its southern port city of Khorramshahr across Iraq to Syria.

With a strategic coastline on the Mediterranean and having just re-emerged out of the diplomatic cold, Syria also wants to be part of the new Middle East connectivity. Its Transport Minister Zuhair Khuzaim, who also attended the Baghdad meeting, has suggested that the Iraqi Al-Faw Port should be linked with Syrian ports on the Mediterranean.

He said this would shorten the overall distance to the Mediterranean Sea by some 900 km.

Saudi Arabia has also unveiled an infrastructure programme that includes building a vast road network and a railway line that will connect the Saudi coastline on the Gulf with its ports on the Red Sea.

Saudi Minister of Transport Saleh bin Nasser Al-Jasser, who represented the Kingdom at the Baghdad meeting, said an international consortium led by Chinese companies was taking part in the projects.

Saudi Arabia has also signed a number of agreements to boost economic cooperation and develop a special economic zone with Iraq. Among them are plans to expand and effectively utilise the newly opened Arar crossing point with Iraq and to open a new one in Jumaimah further south.

Jordan has always been a key partner of Iraq, whether through bilateral business deals or as a gateway for international trade via its Aqaba Port on the Red Sea, which connects with the Mediterranean. It has struggled to offer a more appealing vision of cooperation, including through a strategic tripartite partnership with Egypt.

Driven by fears that it will be marginalised by Beijings drive to establish a new Eurasian corridor through its Belt and Road Initiative, India has been contemplating its own corridor to the Mediterranean that would radically reconfigure trade patterns between the Indian Ocean, the Middle East, and Europe.

Plans for the new Arab-Mediterranean connectivity are also the result of the diplomatic normalisation between some Arab Gulf nations and Israel, which is giving rise to the creation of a UAE-Israel railway network via Saudi Arabia and Jordan to Israels Haifa port on the Mediterranean.

Israel has already showed great interest in all the connectivity projects, and it has proposed a new train route linking Haifa to the Saudi Gulf port of Dammam, the UAE, and Bahrain.

The Israeli media says that the proposals, dubbed Tracks for Regional Peace, have undergone a preliminary feasibility study and could gather steam alongside a major infrastructure project.

Egypt has also recently showcased a gigantic high-speed rail link from Al-Sokhna at the northern tip of the Red Sea to Al-Alamein on the Mediterranean. Thanks to the Suez Canal waterway that can handle container ships carrying over 20,000 containers, Egypt will be able to provide a duel corridor with the fastest outreach to Europe.

However, all these ambitious initiatives hinge on the progress made by China to establish a foothold in the Mediterranean through its Belt and Road Initiative. The mammoth $1 trillion Chinese Initiative, slated for completion in 2049, is intended to link Asia to Europe via the Middle East.

Whether Iraq becomes a regional leader in forging its new commercial architecture will therefore depend on several geopolitical and economic considerations, including competition over influence and Iraqs ability to manage its foreign and regional partnerships to participate in the Development Road corridor.

Even before becoming an independent state in 1922, Iraq had anchored itself in the Middle East as crucially important for regional and world geopolitics.

Before World War I, Germany contemplated building a railway line to connect Berlin to Baghdad and Basra on the Gulf through the Ottoman Empire. The Germans were hoping the line would give them access to the Gulf and circumvent the Suez Canal, then controlled by Britain.

Even with a post-independence history checkered with political upheavals, military coups, and wars, Iraq has remained strategically important, whether as a result of its having the worlds fifth-largest proven crude oil reserves or because of its position at the heart of the Levant with connections to Iran and the Gulf.

Yet, with a region crowded with so many ambitious projects and sometimes conflicting interests, the Iraqi plans for a regional commercial corridor are coming under scrutiny. Al-Sudani has proudly launched the plans, but he has not presented the initiative for analysis at expert level or even for public discussion.

While many critics point to Iraqs present financial crunch due to government dysfunction, economic inefficiency, and rampant corruption, others have voiced concerns about the projects feasibility. Still others say its successful implementation is unlikely due to political reasons.

For all the talk about the vast scope of the Development Road project and its being a connectivity node for Iraq to be a vital part of any future Middle East, the centrality of the initiative to Iraqs sense of its regional destiny remains an open question.

* A version of this article appears in print in the8 June, 2023 edition ofAl-Ahram Weekly

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At least 120,000 children killed or maimed by wars around the world across continents since 2005, an average of almost 20 a day

BAGHDAD, 6 June 2023 A staggering 315,000 grave violations against children in conflict were verified by the United Nations between 2005 and 2022 worldwide, a stark illustration of the devastating impact of war and conflict on children.

As states, donors and the humanitarian community meet in Norway for the Oslo Conference on Protecting Children in Armed Conflict*, UNICEF has reported that, since monitoring began in 2005 (since 2008 in the case of Iraq), the UN has verified 315,000 grave violations committed by parties to conflict in more than 30 conflict situations across Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America.

These include:

More than 120,000 children killed or maimed.

At least 105,000 children recruited or used by armed forces or armed groups.

More than 32,500 children abducted.

More than 16,000 children subjected to sexual violence.

The UN has also verified globally more than 16,000 attacks on schools and hospitals, and more than 22,000 instances of denial of humanitarian access for children.

For Iraq, the numbers are staggering, with over 9,000 children killed or maimed (3,119 killed and 5,938 maimed) since 2008 to the end of 2022. Despite the considerable reduction on the number of reported cases in the last years, the overall number represents, on an average, more than 1 child killed every other day and one child maimed daily over the reported period.

As these are just the cases that have been verified, the true toll is likely to be far higher.

Additionally, many millions more children have been displaced globally from their homes and communities, lost friends or family, or separated from parents or caregivers.

Any war is ultimately a war on children, said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. Exposure to conflict has catastrophic, life-changing effects for children. While we know what must be done to protect children from war, the world is not doing enough. Year after year, the UN documents the visceral, tragic and all too predictable ways that childrens lives are torn apart. It is incumbent on all of us to ensure that children do not pay the price for the wars of adults, and to take the bold, concrete action required to improve the protection of some of the worlds most vulnerable children.

In this context, UNICEF has supported the care and protection of millions of affected children across conflict situations to enhance their well-being, including through the provision of mental health and psychosocial support, child protection case management, family tracing and reunification, and services for child survivors of gender-based violence. In 2022, UNICEF reached almost 12,500 children globally who exited armed forces or armed groups with reintegration or other protection support, and more than 9 million children with information that they can use to protect themselves from explosive remnants of war.

Sheema Sen Gupta, UNICEF Representative in Iraq, also present in the Conference, spoke about the need of reintegration for children in Iraq following so many years of conflict, As a response to years of conflict, UNICEF, in collaboration with the Government of Iraq and partners, target four profiles of children in need of reintegration, including children returning from North-East Syria, children released from detention, children perceived to be affiliated with armed groups, and other vulnerable children. These UNICEF reintegration programmes target three levels: individual, community and institutional. However, successful long-term reintegration is contingent on on-going basic service provision to ensure that children can access their rights, as highlighted in the Paris Principles.

Unfortunately, the scale of the child protection risks to children affected by conflict is not matched by the scale of funding available to address these issues. New analysis by Humanitarian Funding Forecasting, commissioned by UNICEF, Save the Children, the Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action and the Global Child Protection Area of Responsibility, reveals that by 2024, the child protection sector will require US$1.05 billion, increasing to US$1.37 billion by 2026, to address the protection needs of children in armed conflict. This includes critical services like family reunification, mental health support, and the prevention of recruitment into armed groups.

However, the study also indicates an impending funding shortfall. If the current pace of humanitarian funding continues, the projected shortfall would stand at US$835 million in 2024, growing to US$941 million by 2026. This gap could leave conflict-affected children exposed to the immediate and lasting impacts of war, child labor, trafficking, and violence.

As leaders convene in Oslo, UNICEF is calling for governments to make bold new commitments to:

Uphold and operationalize the international laws and norms already in place to protect children in war including to protect schools, hospitals and other protected objects like water and sanitation facilities from attack, to stop the recruitment and use of children by armed groups and forces, to stop the use of explosive weapons in populated areas.

Hold perpetrators to account when childrens rights are violated.

Step up critical resources to fund the protection of children in conflict at the scale and speed required, in line with growing needs. This must include investment in humanitarian response and in national child protection workforces.

UNICEF is also calling on humanitarian actors to invest in policies that place children and their protection at the centre of humanitarian action in situations of armed conflict.

We must deliver a child protection response that is equal to the challenges we face, said Russell. We need to do everything we can to reach all children in need, particularly the most vulnerable. Protection services for children must build upon existing systems and community structures, and support childrens rights, participation, and their best interests. Programmes and advocacy in these contexts must unfailingly put children and their protection at the centre of humanitarian action.

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More than 9000 children have been killed or maimed in Iraq since ... - ReliefWeb

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) The Iraqi Minister of Foreign Affairs, Fuad Hussein, stressed the importance of Japanese companies participation in the reconstruction of infrastructure in Iraq, according to a statement cited by the Iraqi Foreign Ministry.

The statement explained that Hussein received the Assistant Foreign Minister and Director General for Middle Eastern and African Affairs Bureau at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, Kansuke Nagaoka, in Baghdad, where they discussed ways to enhance bilateral ties to serve the interests of the people of both countries.

Hussein valued the Japanese role in supporting Iraqs efforts in confronting terrorism and providing humanitarian aid, the statement illustrated.

The Iraqi Foreign Minister noted that Japans stance contributes effectively to strengthening bilateral relations, the statement clarified.

Hussein expressed that Baghdad is looking forward to seeing Tokyos greater role in various fields, emphasizing the importance of the participation of Japanese companies in the reconstruction of infrastructure and providing Iraq with scientific expertise that contributes to the construction process.

The Iraqi Foreign Minister also called on Japanese investment companies to expand their activities because of the great expertise they possess in this field, indicating Iraqs openness to joint cooperation to increase the volume of trade exchange between the two countries, the statement elaborated.

The Iraqi Foreign Minister highlighted the importance of the discussions held by the two sides to complete some agreements related to the oil industries, water management and purification, the statement added.

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Iraqi FM calls on Japanese companies to take part in reconstruction - Iraqi News

To visit Kurdistan in springtime is to suckle ones soul and senses with wildflowers and fresh fruit. The land is alive with flowers: the yellow of wild mustard, the pink of bindweed, the red poppies as well as the orange blossom on the pomegranate trees.

Driving past fields of ripe wheat, with a Kurdish friend who works for the Kurdistan Regional Government, we stopped near the town of Halabja to eat mulberries straight from the trees sour black ones and sweet white ones. On the mountain side of Sitak, he barbequed masgoof, butterflied carp, which we devoured with traditional flatbread, grilled tomatoes and onions.

I spent a Friday hiking in Mergapan with Barham Salih, a Kurdish politician who previously served as the president of Iraq and whom I have known for 20 years, from my time working for the Coalition in Iraq. We crossed a low-flowing river using stepping stones and the helping hands of peshmerga guards, traversed tall grasses amid Aleppo oaks in the foothills of the mountain, and stopped frequently to photograph the views across the valley.

As we walked, our conversation focused not on the continuing saga of Iraqi politics, but on the environmental crisis afflicting the country, driven by the inter-linked phenomena of climate change and poor management of natural resources.

Addressing the environmental crisis is a passion for Barham. He noted that Iraqs population has almost doubled to 40 million since the 2003 invasion, and is expected to double again by 2050. Demographics are increasing the demand for water at a time when desertification is affecting 39% of Iraq, and 54% of agricultural lands are threatened by salination.

As president he launched the Mesopotamia Revitalisation Project, an environmental strategy that includes afforestation, modernising the administration of the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers, generating clean energy, and encouraging investment through climate finance facilities. It was an ambitious plan. He laments that there has been little progress in implementing it.

Afterwards, on the patio outside his house, we feasted on dombalan (desert truffles), farika nok (green chickpeas), palpena (purslane) in our salad and soup, kardi (wild arum), garas (green plums), and drank yoghurt with qazwan (wild pistachios). His wife, Sarbagh, is a botanist with a PhD from the University of Bath who founded the Kurdistan Botanical Foundation, which has published three books on the regions fauna and flora, identifying tens of previously unrecorded species in Iraq. The food served in their home is local and organic.

Sadly, this pastoral idyll is threatened by the increasingly unpredictable weather. Over the last few years, Iraq has experienced drought and the lowest levels of rainfall on record, with temperatures soaring to 50C, rising much faster than the global average. During the week of my visit, unseasonal thunderstorms set fields on fire near Kirkuk and flooding damaged the harvest across the north. The UN has identified Iraq as the fifth most vulnerable country in the world to climate change, with the World Bank warning that Iraq will face extreme water scarcity by 2030, and Iraqs ministry of water resources predicting a shortfall of almost 11bn cubic metres of water by 2035.

Leon McCarron, an explorer and author from Northern Ireland, recently published Wounded Tigris: A River Journey through the Cradle of Civilisation, an account of his 2021 three-month journey by boat from the source of the Tigris in Turkey, down through Iraq, to the Gulf. On his journey, he observes how the river is being destroyed by illegal gravel mines, dam construction, untreated waste and how pastoralists and farmers are being forced to leave their land.

Yet he also comes across grassroots activists working to protect the river, to revive community and heritage. This remarkable book warns of the death of a great river that might no longer flow to the Gulf by 2040 and is a call to action to prevent the birthplace of civilisation from becoming uninhabitable.

While in Sulaymaniyah, I attended a talk at the American University of Iraq on the political and economic implications of the recent oil deal between Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government. Afterwards, I asked the main speaker about Iraqs progress towards net zero. He laughed.

Few political leaders have made it a priority, despite the Iraqi parliament ratifying the Paris Agreement in 2021. In its nationally determined contributions (NDC), Iraq has committed to reducing flaring at oil and gas facilities, switching from liquid fuels to natural gas, improving energy efficiency, expanding renewable energy technology, and deploying sustainable public transportation technologies. Iraq is a signatory to the global methane pledge, committing to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 15& by 2030.

However, Iraq has yet to diversify its economy. Oil exports account for around 90% of government revenues. It is the energy sector that is responsible for 75% of Iraqs total emissions. While driving around, I observed gas being flared from oil production, emitting large amounts of black carbon into the atmosphere. Despite commitments to capture and utilise the gas, the World Bank reports that Iraq flares around 17bn cubic metres of gas every year, worth around $8bn (6.4bn). And at the same time, Iraq continues to import gas from Iran.

There is also insufficient public awareness about the climate crisis, and the need to protect the environment. I was shocked at the sight of rubbish thrown in streams, piles of domestic waste left at the sides of the road, blots on a charming countryside, polluting the natural environment. Local government is not effectively disposing of waste. Littering goes unpunished. Roads are heavily congested with traffic. With public transport undeveloped, people use private vehicles.

The International Organisation for Migration reports increasing displacement in Iraq due to the combined effects of conflict, rising temperatures and environmental degradation. The Iraqi government buys wheat and barley directly from farmers at double the international prices but the area planted with irrigated crops has shrunk in order to decrease water consumption. Increasing numbers of Iraqis are moving from the countryside to the cities to find jobs, putting further strain on services. The population of the Kurdistan region has grown by nearly 30% due to the influx of Syrian refugees and Iraqis displaced from areas destroyed by Isis.

According to Azzam Alwash, Iraqs leading environmentalist and the CEO of Nature Iraq, agriculture was sustainable in Mesopotamia for centuries due to cyclical flooding that washed away the salts resulting from evaporation, fertilising the land with silt. However, in recent decades, upstream dam-building has stopped floods, and precipitation has declined significantly. Currently, 90% of the water flow in the Euphrates and 40% of the flow in the Tigris comes from Turkey; and Iran has been diverting tributaries to meet its own water needs.

Azzam has urged Iraq, Iran and Turkey to work together to reach an agreement to coordinate dam-building, rerouting of rivers and management of water resources. Azzam strongly believes that with the right policies and investments in renewable energy, in particular solar power and green hydrogen, Iraq could once again become a major food producer and breadbasket of the Middle East.

The survival of future generations in the region requires collaboration. In recognition of the fact that the region is on track for a five-degree rise in temperature by the end of the century if it goes about business as usual, the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East Climate Change Initiative (EMME-CCI) was launched on November 8, 2022 at Cop27 in Sharm el-Sheikh. Bahrain, Cyprus, Egypt, Greece, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Oman and Palestine adopted a resolution to coordinate efforts on climate mitigation and adaptation, to strengthen regional cooperation, and to mainstream climate policies across all sectors. It was a moment of common sense and courage.

But rhetoric must be met by action to ensure such plans are resourced, coordinated and implemented. Given its oil, rivers, biodiversity and its central geographical location Iraq needs to lead by example, before it is too late.

Emma Sky is director of Yales International Leadership Center and author of The Unravelling: High Hopes and Missed Opportunities in Iraq and In a Time of Monsters: Travels Through a Middle East in Revolt

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Iraq's next crisis is over the climate - The New European