KRG: Cold-shouldered
As Iraq consolidates its control of recaptured land and resources in and around Kirkuk, the KRG is looking increasingly isolated
There's been a lot of diplomatic activity in the Middle East over recent days. But none of it has involved the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq. US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, as part of a tour of Gulf states, flew to Baghdad to meet Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi. The Kurdish leadership must have hoped that his next stop was Erbil. The involvement of the US in attempts to defuse the crisis between the KRG and the federal government in Baghdad, in the wake of the forced withdrawal of Peshmerga units from land captured in 2014, would have been welcomed in Erbil. It wasn't to be. To rub salt in the wounds, Tillerson, during a stop in Riyadh, attended the inaugural meeti
Also in this section
4 March 2026
The US president has repeatedly promised to lower gasoline prices, but this ambition conflicts with his parallel aim to increase drilling and could be upended by his war against Iran
4 March 2026
With the Strait of Hormuz effectively closed following US-Israel strikes and Iran’s retaliatory escalation, Fujairah has become the region’s critical pressure release valve—and is now under serious threat
3 March 2026
The killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei in US–Israeli strikes marks the most serious escalation in the region in decades and a bigger potential threat to the oil market than the start of the Russia-Ukraine crisis
2 March 2026
A potential blockade of the Strait of Hormuz following the escalating US-Iran conflict risks disrupting Qatari LNG exports that underpin global gas markets, exposing Asia and other markets to sharp price spikes, cargo shortages and renewed reliance on dirtier fuels
