Libya’s Tripoli-based prime minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah has defended a deal signed earlier this week with Turkey over oil and gas exploration in the Mediterranean, which angered European nations.
The memorandum of understanding, three years after a controversial maritime border deal, sparked a sharp reaction from Greece as well as from Dbeibah’s rivals in Libya, where two administrations are grappling for power.
Saudi Arabia has been pushing for production cuts due to fluctuations in global oil prices.
Oil prices are at a three-week high following the decision by Saudi Arabia, Russia and other major oil producers to cut production.
The price of Brent crude oil topped $94 a barrel today, the highest price since Sept. 14, according to market data.
Iraq’s oil reduction per the recent OPEC+ agreement will not affect the country’s revenues, according to Iraq’s oil minister.
During the 33rd OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting, which was held Oct. 5 at the OPEC headquarters in Vienna, Austria, the 23 member states decided to decrease oil production.
As Syrian and Russian attacks escalate in Idlib, the FSA-affiliated Jaysh al-Izza denied Russian reports that an airstrike at one of their sites in a displaced camp in the north killed some of their commanders.
Syrian government forces and Russia have recently renewed their ground and airstrikes on Idlib province in northwestern Syria.
Iraq’s political deadlock continues amid fear of a new wave of violence erupting in the streets.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi met with Kurdish leaders Monday as part of his campaign for a national dialogue to end the political deadlock.
The Caucasian community in Turkey is treading carefully in an initiative to help kinsmen fleeing Moscow’s military call-up, wary of coming off as encouraging draft evasion and angering Russia.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s appeal to Russia’s ethnic peoples to resist the Kremlin’s military call-up has reverberated beyond Russia’s borders, including in Turkey where a vibrant Caucasian diaspora has joined forces to help those fleeing conscription for the war in Ukraine.
The Iranian Human Rights Organization (IHRO) announced that the number of people killed in the on-going protests in Iran reached “at least 154 people”. Among this number of deaths 9 were probably “children” and 63 are citizens of Zahedan.
The UN’s envoy to Iraq delivered a scathing indictment of the country’s political class during today’s Security Council briefing, decrying its exposure of the population to severe risks.
Amid attempts to quell violence in cities across Iraq, a UN official stressed Tuesday that “the smallest spark can suffice to trigger a major disaster.”
Syrian government forces are deployed in the Syrian desert in preparation for a large campaign against the Islamic State.
Media sources from Deir ez-Zor in eastern Syria told Al-Monitor that government forces instructed members in Deir ez-Zor and Raqqa to mobilize ahead of a major military operation in the Badia region of the Syrian desert. The operation will comb the Deir ez-Zor-Homs-Raqqa-Hama countryside at the behest of Russia, according to the sources.
An energy deal signed between Turkey and the Libyan administration of Abdul Hamid Dbeibah on Monday has brought a reaction from Greece, EU and Libya’s eastern-based parliament.
Turkey reacted angrily Tuesday to criticisms over the hydrocarbons accord it signed with Libya’s Tripoli-based government, which allows Turkish and Libyan companies to carry out joint explorations in the eastern Mediterranean.