Who really controls Kurdistan’s gas? The Dana Gas deal, the KRG’s silence and the hidden cost of selling energy to Iraq

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By Dr. Pshtiwan Faraj | Kurdish Policy Analysis      A $2.239 billion arbitration settlement, a contract running until 2049, expanded rights for Pearl Petroleum and a new battle over gas sales to Baghdad are raising uncomfortable questions about who ultimately controls Kurdistan’s most strategic natural resource. The latest dispute over Khor Mor gas is exposing a much deeper problem in the Kurdistan Region’s energy sector: the public still does not appear to have a clear picture of who controls the region’s gas, who is authorized to sell it, and how much of its future value has already been committed to private companies. At the center of the controversy is Pearl Petroleum, the consortium led by Dana Gas and Crescent Petroleum, and a settlement agreement reached with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) on August 30, 2017. Kurdistan Parliament member Kawa Sheikh Ali has now sharply criticized that agreement, asking why a government would effectively commit its natural ...
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More than 110 people killed in Iran’s Kurdistan: Official


 At least 112 people have been killed so far in United States-Israel attacks on Iran’s  Kurdistan province, according to a local official quoted by state media, a dark twist as Washington encourages Iranian Kurdish forces across the border in Iraq to launch a ground operation into Iran, AzerNEWS reports, citing Al Jazeera.

The head of the Kurdistan Provincial Emergency Department on Friday said at least 969 people were injured in the attacks.

Twenty-seven people are currently hospitalised in standard wards, while five are in intensive care units, the official, who remained unnamed, added.

Kurds are an Indigenous ethnic minority of the Mesopotamian region, spread mainly across southeastern Turkiye, northeastern Syria, the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, northwestern Iran and southwestern Armenia, sharing a distinct language and culture but lacking a state of their own.

They are also estimated to make up nearly 10 percent of Iran’s population, though no official figure exists.

The US-Israeli attacks on Iran’s Kurdistan province come amid speculation that President Donald Trump has been in direct talks with Iranian and Iraqi Kurdish groups, and that Washington aims to use them militarily on the ground to help trigger a popular uprising.

However, Trump last week said he did not want the Kurds to launch an offensive against Iran, saying the US did not want to “make the war any more complex than it already is”.

Iranian Kurdish opposition movements, many of which maintain close relations with Iraqi Kurdish factions, have long resisted Tehran while operating from bases in northern Iraq and areas along the Iran-Iraq frontier. Collectively, these groups are estimated to field several thousand fighters.

Last week, Iranian forces launched an operation against Kurdish groups in their semi-autonomous region of neighbouring Iraq.

The Iraqi Kurdish regional government has denied involvement in any plans to arm Kurdish groups and send them into Iran.

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