Iraq’s Oil Embargo Was Never Just About Oil

It is sometimes difficult in the multi-dimensional world of Middle Eastern geopolitics to see the bigger picture, and this has certainly been true for many looking at the ongoing conflict between the south and the north of Iraq. The most notable superficial manifestation of this in recent times has centred on the continued embargo of independent oil sales from the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) in the north by the Federal Government of Iraq (FGI) in the south. However, this dispute has never fundamentally been about oil. It is instead…