MESOPOTAMIA NEWS IRAQI / KURDISH OIL REPORT

 Iraq’s Parliament passed an much-anticipated amendment to the law structuring Iraq’s Federal Supreme Court.

Given the court’s role in Iraq’s electoral process, the new legislation was necessary for the government to move forward with plans to hold national elections this October. Zaid al-Ali, an expert in Iraqi constitutional law, offered helpful analysis of the new amendments and the political wrangling that led up to their passage. “The amendment provides that all existing members [of the court] are to be sent to retirement after new members are chosen,” Ali writes. The new members are supposed to be nominated by “an ad hoc committee made up of the current head of the Supreme Court, the head of the Judicial Council, the public prosecutor, the head of the judicial oversight body, in cooperation with the KRG judicial council,” Ali says, although he notes that the text of the law is confusing about key elements of the selection process. “I’m not sure what parliamentarians think they were voting for,” Ali says, “but this isn’t clear.” Passage of the law also now opens up the legislative calendar, enabling the Parliament to focus on passage of the national budget. As this newsletter goes to print, MPs are telling Iraq Oil Report they are planning to convene for a vote on the 2021 national budget law at 10 a.m. Saturday. If and when there is a vote, Iraq Oil Report will have a story; keep your eyes out.

The national budget is the first step toward defining a more sustainable framework for relations between the federal government and the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), according to Lahur Talabany. Talabany is the co-president of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), one of the two main parties ruling the KRG, and a strong proponent of finding a workable framework for a strong relationship with Baghdad. In an interview with Iraq Oil Report this week, Talabany said the passage of a 2021 budget law could lead to further negotiations on a number of fronts, including a framework for the KRG oil sector to operate within the structure of a prospective Iraqi National Oil Company. He also discussed a range of issues related to economic development and security dynamics along Kurdistan’s southern border. Read the full interview on Iraq Oil Report.

Ninewa province has suffered on multiple fronts in recent years. Not only did the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS) militant group inflict violence and depravity on millions of residents during its occupation, but much of the province was destroyed in the ensuing war — and in the aftermath, many areas are now occupied by politicized paramilitary groups. It is also geographically sensitive, containing a long and porous border with Syria and a large band of territory subject to disputes between the KRG and federal government. Iraq Oil Report interviewed Najim al-Jibouri, the governor of Ninewa, in Mosul, shortly before the Pope’s visit to the city earlier this month. Reconstruction efforts can be seen throughout Mosul, with a tangle of new roads and several new bridges linking the banks of the Tigris. But the level of damage remains significant, Jibouri says, especially in rural areas — and in a time of tough financial constraints, Ninewa is low on the list of priorities for the federal government in Baghdad. At the same time, the province has relatively little power to allocate money and attract the kind of investment it needs. For more on the state of Iraq’s second-largest city — and the oil resources in the surrounding territory — read the full interview on Iraq Oil Report.