U.S. Intervention in Iraq's Oil Dispute Sparks Backlash

The U.S. last week stepped into the long-running embargo by the Baghdad-based Federal Government of Iraq (FGI) of independent oil exports from Iraq’s semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan (KRI) centred in Erbil. These flows into Turkey were stopped on 25 March 2023 after the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) ordered Ankara to pay the FGI US$1.5 billion in damages for these allegedly unauthorised oil exports. U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told local Iraqi news outlets that Washington has encouraged the historically…