Tag Archive for Israel Kurdistan

| October 31, 2017
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Iraq outlaws displaying Israeli flags after Jerusalem’s support for Kurdish independence

Although denied by Jerusalem, Iraq’s central government accused Israel of orchestrating the Kurdish vote for their independence, so the government’s decision to criminalize all who raise the Israeli flag in public comes as no surprise.

By i24NEWS

 

Iraq’s parliament in Baghdad voted on Tuesday to criminalize flying the Israeli flag in the country, after they appeared at several Kurdish rallies in the lead up and aftermath of a banned independence referendum last month.

“The House of Representatives voted during its regular session, today, a decision to criminalize all who raise the flag of the Zionist entity in the public circles,” a parliamentary source told the Alsumaria News outlet. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , , ,
| October 21, 2017
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Israel’s Prime Minister lobbies world leaders to support Iraqi Kurds

Hoping to prevent further setbacks to Iraqi Kurds’ lands from being controlled by Iraqi forces, Israeli PM Netanyahu is lobbying world powers to back a Kurdish bid for independence.

By Reuters

 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is lobbying world powers to prevent further setbacks to Iraqi Kurds as they lose ground to Baghdad’s army, Israeli officials say.

Israel has been the only major power to endorse statehood for the Kurds, partly, say analysts, because it sees the ethnic group—whose population is split among Iraq, Turkey, Syria and Iran—as a buffer against shared adversaries.

Kurdistan’s futire border would be the area of their red, white & green national flag

Iraqi armed forces retook the oil-rich Kirkuk region this week, following a Sept. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , , , ,
| September 26, 2017
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Erdogan threatens to end Israel-Turkey relations over Jerusalem’s support for Kurdish state

Turkish despot Erdoğan said that since Israel is the only nation to publicly support the Kurdish independence referendum, it’s not “legitimate” and “Turkey could not take any steps” moving forward with the Jewish State.

By REUTERS, JPOST.COM STAFF

 

ERBIL, Iraq – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stated on Tuesday afternoon that “If Israel does not reconsider its support for Kurdish independence, Turkey could not take any steps” with the Jewish State, according to the Turkish news outlet Daily Sabah.

He went on to say that if the Kurdish referendum is held on its own, with only Israel and the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) celebrating it, then it will not be legitimate. Continue Reading »

Category: The Diaspora | Tags: , ,
| September 13, 2017
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Prime Minister Netanyahu says Israel endorses Kurdish independence

Israel becomes the first country to officially endorse Kurdish independence as PM Netanyahu announced that the Jewish State “supports the legitimate efforts of the Kurdish people to attain a state of its own.”
• The referendum which takes place in Turkey, Iraq and Iran on Sept. 25, have all three countries opposing the vote.

By the Associated Press and Israel Hayom Staff

 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that Israel supports Kurdish independence.

The statement, made ahead of a key referendum on the matter set for Sept. 25, said that Israel rejects the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, and considers it a terrorist organization, but noted that Israel “supports the legitimate efforts of the Kurdish people to attain a state of its own.” Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: ,
| August 25, 2015
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Jewish State ‘very interested’ in assisting the Kurds

 

Mid-East Analyst : Crude oil purchases act as covert way for Israel to provide aid to Iraqi Kurds.

By ARIEL BEN SOLOMON

 

News published in theFinancial Times on Sunday that Israel imports most of its oil from Iraq’s Kurdish areas came as no shock to those following the secretive Israel-Kurd relationship.

“The news is not so surprising, as it has been going on for some time,” Prof. Ofra Bengio, editor of the book Kurdish Awakening: Nation-Building in a Fragmented Homeland, told The Jerusalem Post on Monday.

A KURDISH Peshmerga soldier holds a Kurdistan flag during an intensive security deployment after clashes with Islamic State militants.-

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Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , , , ,
| August 24, 2015
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UK Report: Israel Imports Over 75% of its Oil from Kurds

 

Financial Times reports much of the Kurdish oil is loaded onto tankers at Ceyhan Turkey, and then shipped to refineries at the Israeli port of Ashkelon.

By Arutz Sheva Staff

 

Israel has imported as much as three-quarters of its oil from Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish north in recent months, The Financial Times reported on Sunday.

The move provides a vital source of funds to the cash-strapped region as it fights Islamic State (ISIS) jihadists, according to the report.

Kurdish Peshmerga fighters in northern Iraq – Reuters

The imports highlight the significant inroads that oil from Iraqi Kurdistan is making into world markets, with Italy, France and Greece also emerging as big buyers, the newspaper noted. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , ,
| November 14, 2014
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Female IDF Soldier Joins Kurds to Fight ISIS

31 yr-old former IDF warrior becomes 1st Israeli to volunteer to join the Kurds in their desperate war against the Islamic State.

By David Lazarus

 

A female former IDF soldier has become the first Israeli to publicly join Kurdish forces battling against ISIS in Syria and Iraq, the nation learned on Tuesday.

Female IDF combat soldiers – IDF Spokesperson’s Unit

“I’m on the Iraq-Syria border, and we’re currently about 3,000 meters from ISIS,” Gill Rosenberg, 31, told Israel Radio in a telephone interview from the battlefield. “I was given an RPG by the Kurdish army,” she said.

Rosenberg is a civil aviation pilot and served in an Israeli army search-and-rescue unit.

Continue Reading »
Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , , ,
| June 29, 2014
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Israel Backs Kurds for Independence

 

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: The Kurds “proved its political commitment… deserves political independence”

By Dan Williams; editing by Ralph Boulton

 

(Reuters) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voiced support for Kurdish statehood on Sunday, taking a position that appeared to clash with the U.S. preference to keep sectarian war-torn Iraq united.

Netanyahu

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference January 21, 2014 – Photo: Menahem Kahana/AFP

Israel has maintained discreet military, intelligence and business ties with the Kurds since the 1960s, seeing in the minority ethnic group a buffer against shared Arab adversaries.

The Kurds have seized on recent sectarian chaos in Iraq to expand their autonomous northern territory to include Kirkuk, which sits on vast oil deposits that could make the independent state many dream of economically viable. Continue Reading »

Category: The Diaspora | Tags: , ,
| June 22, 2014
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The Kurds re-connect with an old ally: Israel

Washington disapproves of the Kurds exporting Iraqi oil in principle, since it diminishes from Iraq’s national unity, but it’s highly unlikely that the U.S. will object to their selling oil to Israel.

By and Avi Bar-Eli

Kurdish oil has been sailing for weeks across the Mediterranean, looking for a buyer. Finally. a country that will take it in has been found, according to a Reuters report out of London.
Reuters

The SCF Altai tanker docks near Israel’s Ashkelon Port, June 20, 2014. – Photo: Reuters

The Liberia-registered tanker Altai docked in Ashkelon on Friday, carrying a million barrels of oil produced in the Kurdish regions of Iraq.

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Category: Israel News | Tags: ,
| June 20, 2014
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Israel Receives First Oil Delivery From Iraqi Kurds via Disputed Kurdish Pipeline

 

Israel officials have been keen to build ties with the Kurds, hoping to broaden options for energy supplies. Israeli refineries have purchased Kurdish crude before, in small volumes, which were trucked to Turkish ports.

By Julia Payne, Reuters

 

LONDON (Reuters) – Iraqi Kurdistan looked set to unload in Israel a first cargo of disputed crude oil from its new pipeline after weeks of seeking an outlet as Iraq’s central government has threatened legal action against any buyer.

The SCF Altai tanker has anchored near Israel's Ashkelon port June 20, 2014 - Photo by REUTERS-Amir Cohen

The SCF Altai tanker has anchored near Israel’s Ashkelon port June 20, 2014 – Photo: REUTERS-Amir Cohen

The SCF Altai tanker was anchored near Israel’s Ashkelon port early on Friday morning, ship tracking and industry sources said. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , ,