Iraqi premier has reportedly appointed an Arab politician as the new acting governor of Kirkuk, which is the scene of conflict between Iraqi forces and Kurdish Peshmarga since the beginning of the central government’s operation to retake the oil-rich city.
A senior advisor to Iran’s president says Trump’s comments will only increase the Iranian people’s support for the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC).
Iraqi forces have taken full control of the largest airbase of Kirkuk, known as K1, after recapturing vast areas of the city from Kurds in an operation started on Sunday night.
While Iran’s nuclear deal is grabbing the international headlines, oil market experts are mainly concerned with the internal divisions in Iraq, particularly the conflict over the secession of Iraqi Kurdistan as the main element which can influence the global oil prices.
Iran has denied reports that the country has closed its land border with the semi-autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan Region in response to last month’s independence referendum in the region.
Iraqi central government in Baghdad has set a deadline for the Kurdish Peshmerga forces to leave and hand over the areas which had been under the control of the army before the ISIS attack.
A Middle East expert says during the past three years, the US-led coalition in Iraq and Syria has run with the hare and hunted with the hound to provide ISIS with new opportunities to continue its operation along borders of regional countries.
A top Iranian Shiite cleric says Saudi Arabia has decided to adopt a different policy on Iran and this was evident in their recent behaviour towards Iranian Hajj pilgrims.
As the US president is expected to deliver a speech on Friday night and declare the country’s new strategy towards the Islamic Republic of Iran, an informed source at the Iranian foreign ministry has outlined the main themes of Tehran’s response to Trump and his country’s new policies.
Baghdad’s ban on the arrival and departure of foreign flights at/from Kurdistan airports has reportedly caused a loss of 50 to 60 thousand dollars a day.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister has announced that the country is prepared to mediate in normalising ties between regional arch-rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia.
Iranian president has highlighted the role played by the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps in saving regional states from terrorism, saying the IRGC is now popular not only in Iran, but also in Iraq, Iraqi Kurdistan region, Syria, and Lebanon.
Iran and Turkey have signed a draft agreement to carry out trade activities based on their own local currencies instead of traditional foreign currencies such as the euro and the dollar.
An Iranian analyst says Tehran and Ankara cannot pursue a totally similar policy towards the issue of Iraqi Kurdistan, and Iran needs to adopt its own independent policy in this regard.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, in an article published in The Atlantic, has rejected the ‘myths’ about Iran’s aggression in the Middle East, and argued that his country has been unfairly maligned.
An Iraqi Vice President, after meeting with the President of the Kurdistan Region Masoud Barzani, has announced that he is ready to ignore the referendum results in return for the lifting of sanctions against Erbil.
A Kurdish Iranian parliamentarian says Tehran would be the best place for talks between the Iraqi government and authorities of the Iraqi Kurdistan region.
The pace of reforms in Saudi Arabia has long been so slow that when the country’s king announced that women in the kingdom have been granted the right to drive, his statements grabbed the headlines across the globe. This comes as many rights activists say despite the latest reforms, the condition of women in Saudi Arabia is not acceptable yet.
Secretary General of Lebanon’s Hezbollah Movement, Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah, says Washington’s main problem with Iran is not the country’s nuclear program but its regional role which thwarts the US plots in the Middle East.
A German teenager who had joined the ISIS terrorist group has explained how she managed to travel from Germany to Turkey and then to Syria and Iraq to fight for the terrorist group.
An Iranian website has, in a critical article, lashed out at certain commentators who believe the secession of the Iraqi Kurdistan region is a logical move.
Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps has warned that if the US is stupid enough to designate IRGC as a terrorist organization, then the IRGC will regard the US army as ISIS terrorists anywhere in the world.
