Region

BAGHDAD — A dispute between companies transporting liquefied petroleum gas across Iraq's northern Kurdish region has escalated into armed attacks and skyrocketing gas prices, government and industry sources said on Wednesday.

The crisis was sparked by competition over a contract to transport liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) from the northeastern field of Khor Mor to consumers in the autonomous region.

"The Golden Jaguar company had for several years been transporting the gas and distributing it by truck," a source in the Kurdistan regional government (KRG) said.

"As part of a rigid tendering process in 2019, it lost the bid to another firm called Sorgas, which pledged to begin shipment on February 1, 2020," this source told AFP.

The official and two industry sources alleged that Golden Jaguar had links to the powerful Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) based in the northeastern city of Sulaimaniyah.

Sorgas, meanwhile, was tied to the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), a second KRG official said.

The companies do not acknowledge any ties to the two political factions, which have been rivals for decades.

When Sorgas began moving LPG on February 1, unidentified men attacked the company's headquarters and briefly detained its director in a bid to pressure him to drop the contract, KRG officials and industry sources told AFP.

The director declined AFP's request to comment.

The following three nights, unidentified gunmen fired on Sorgas trucks transporting LPG across the Kurdish region, the officials and industry sources said.

No one was hurt in the shootouts, but the LPG in the trucks was lost, transfers temporarily halted and cooking gas prices more than tripled from 7,000 Iraqi dinars (nearly $6) to up to 25,000 Iraqi dinars ($20) per 15 kilogramme canister.

KRG authorities were in pursuit of the armed men who attacked the Sorgas facilities and trucks, KRG Interior Minister Rebar Ahmed said in a statement on Tuesday.

He said police units specifically trained to protect oil and gas infrastructure were being deployed at the field and along transport routes to prevent further incidents.

But Suran Omar, a member of Kurdistan's parliament, said he believed the political dispute behind the incidents was still simmering.

"In the Kurdish region, party officials invest in businesses — there is no taking into account public funds or the daily life of citizens," he told AFP on Wednesday.

LPG, also known as propane, fuels cars and heating appliances, and is often used for cooking.

The shortages were still affecting citizens in northern Iraq on Wednesday.

In Sulaimaniyah, prices had dropped slightly, but there were long lines at supermarkets as families scrambled to buy enough to be able to heat their homes and cook, an AFP correspondent said.

A taxi driver in the Kurdish region's capital erbil told AFP "I didn't buy gas earlier this week because I thought this crisis would be resolved.

"But my wife had none left so I was forced to go to the market."

"They were selling a gas tank for 25,000 Iraqi dinars and I was forced to buy it. The parties disagree and we're forced to pay the price," said the driver.

The spat has also affected the war-ravaged city of Mosul, about 80 kilometres west of Erbil, where waiting times at petrol stations had doubled.

Kurdistan produces 1,000 tonnes of liquefied gas per day, 600 tonnes of which is consumed locally and subsidised by the regional government.

BEIRUT — The Syrian army on Wednesday pressed on with their offensive in the northwest that has displaced half a million people, despite heightened tensions with Turkey.

Intensive aerial bombardment and ground fighting in the extremist-dominated Idlib region since December have triggered one of the largest waves of displacement in the nine-year conflict.

The United Nations and aid groups have condemned the escalation and called for an end to hostilities in a region that is home to three million people, half of them already displaced from other parts of Syria. 

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday warned that his country would not allow Syrian forces to gain more ground and accused them of driving "innocent and grieving people" towards the Turkish border.

But the Syrian army on Wednesday pressed on with their offensive in Idlib, where they have seized more than 20 towns and villages from rebels and fighters over the past 24 hours, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and state news agency SANA.

With their latest advance, the Syrian army have nearly encircled Saraqeb in southern Idlib and were now within one kilometre of the strategic highway town which has been emptied of its residents following weeks of bombardment, the observatory said.

Holdout rebels and extremists can only exit from the north, with government forces deployed on all other sides, according to the war monitor group.

A military source quoted by SANA late Tuesday said the Syrian army was giving its enemies in Saraqeb and nearby areas a "last chance", calling on them to surrender their arms.

The Syrian government was poised this week to recapture Saraqeb. But its push hit a snag after the army exchanged deadly fire with Turkish troops on Monday, an escalation UN chief Antonio Guterres called “extremely worrying”.

The army shelling of Turkish positions in Idlib killed at least five Turkish soldiers and three civilians, Ankara said.

The observatory reported that retaliatory fire from Turkey killed at least 13 Syrian government troops. 

The exchange was their deadliest clash since Ankara sent troops to Syria in 2016. 

It further tested the uneasy coordination between Russia and Turkey, the two main foreign brokers in the Syrian conflict.

Under a 2018 deal with Russia, Turkey set up 12 military observation posts in Idlib aimed at preventing a full assault by Syrian forces.

Erdogan on Wednesday urged Damascus to back off those posts. 

“At the moment, two of our 12 observation posts are behind the regime’s lines,” he said. “We hope the regime will withdraw from our observation posts before the end of the month of February.

“If the regime does not pull back, Turkey will be obliged to take matters into its own hands.”

GENEVA — Representatives of the warring parties in Libya meeting in Geneva have agreed on the principle of turning their shaky truce into a lasting ceasefire, the UN's Libya envoy said on Tuesday.

"The principle has been adopted from the first session. Now the question is what are the conditions," Ghassan Salame told reporters in Geneva.

Five senior officers appointed by the UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) and five appointed by the Libyan National Army (LNA) of strongman Khalifa Haftar are taking part in the talks.

"We started yesterday to discuss with them... an attempt to transform the truce into a more solid one, less often violated by either side," he said.

The talks are being moderated by Salame, who last week lashed out at what he branded "unscrupulous" foreign players for meddling in the conflict in the North African country.

The talks started on Monday and were expected to continue on Tuesday, Salame said.

“There is a genuine will for both parties to sit together and start negotiating together,” he said.

“So far we had separate sessions for both parties but I’m sure the time will come for the two sides to sit together,” he added.

At a summit in the German capital last month, world leaders committed to ending all foreign interference and to upholding a weapons embargo to help end the long-running civil war.

Salame said the two sides would meet for talks on economic cooperation in Cairo on February 9 and could hold political talks on resolving the conflict in Geneva in two weeks’ time.

He also reiterated his calls for the international community to assist with the lifting of an oil blockade imposed by forces loyal to Haftar and to prevent the flow of arms and mercenaries into Libya.

Libya has been mired in chaos since a 2011 NATO-backed uprising that killed longtime dictator Muammar Qadhafi, with two rival administrations vying for power.

The conflict deepened when Haftar, who controls much of the south and east of Libya, launched an assault last April to seize Tripoli, the base of the GNA led by Fayez Al Sarraj.

DIWANIYAH, Iraq — Anti-government demonstrators faced off against followers of influential cleric Moqtada Sadr in protest squares across Iraq Tuesday, a day after one demonstrator was killed in a clash between the two sides.

Sadr, an enigmatic militiaman-turned-politician, backed the anti-government rallies when they erupted in October but has split with other demonstrators over the nomination of Mohammad Allawi as prime minister.

The cleric endorsed Allawi while other protesters rejected him, charging he is too close to the ruling elite they have been demonstrating against for four months.

In the southern city of Diwaniyah on Tuesday, the rift escalated into a fistfight between young anti-regime demonstrators and Sadr backers, who are recognisable by their signature blue head caps, an AFP correspondent said.

Police intervened to separate the two camps but the young protesters broke into chants against Sadr, Iraqi authorities as well as Iran, accused by demonstrators of backing the government’s crackdown against them.

Sadr took to Twitter on Tuesday afternoon in an apparent attempt to calm the tensions.

“The ‘blue hats’ have a duty to peacefully secure schools and service centres, not to defend me or suppress the voices that chant against me,” he said.

Tensions have been high in protest squares in recent days between youths furious at Allawi’s nomination and Sadrists.

On Monday, a demonstrator was stabbed to death and three others wounded after men in blue caps attacked an anti-regime rally, medics and security sources said.

Sadr had called for his supporters to help reopen schools, roads and public offices shuttered by months of sit-ins and the interior ministry on Monday followed up with an order for reinforcements to deploy at schools.

Security forces could be seen outside schools in Diwaniyah as a few students trickled in on Tuesday.

Hundreds of students refused to go back to class, however, marching through the main anti-government protest camp with Iraqi flags and a banner that read, “Protest March for Diwaniyah High Schools”.

In Nasiriyah, too, all schools had reopened after police deployed, according to the education directorate’s press chief Halim Al Hossayni.

But students took to the streets there as well to insist on keeping up their protests.

“We’re determined to pursue our peaceful movement in Habbubi square, because we want a homeland free of corruption and sectarian people,” said student Hamad Ali.

Allawi, 65, was nominated on February 1 after two months of political stalemate over who would replace ex-premier Adel Abdel Mahdi, who resigned in December.

BEIRUT — Publications disappearing from newsstands, radio and TV channels struggling to stay on air: Lebanon's once-flourishing media is collapsing under the weight of the worst economic crisis in decades.

The Daily Star, Lebanon's only English-language newspaper, which suspended its print edition on Tuesday, is the latest casualty.

It comes shortly after the English-language Radio One broadcaster went off air at the weekend after nearly four decades.

Due to funding shortages in recent years, a series of prominent dailies and broadcasters in Lebanon have disappeared, undermining the country's regional reputation as a media hub.

The situation has become more dire in recent months, as Lebanon struggles with a wide-reaching recession and a spiralling financial crunch exacerbated by political turmoil and mass protests.

To keep their heads above water, surviving organisations have had to slash salaries and lay off employees. Some have stopped paying salaries all together.

"We haven't been paid in five months," said an employee at the country's oldest newspaper, An-Nahar, asking not to be named to protect his job.

The Daily Star announced on its website the temporary halt of the printing presses was a result of the economic downturn.

It cited "the financial challenges facing the Lebanese press, which have been exacerbated by the deterioration of the economic situation in the country".

It said the temporary suspension came after "a drop to virtually no advertising revenue in the last quarter of 2019, as well as in January of this year".

In recent months, employees at the newspaper had complained of not being paid, with one departing journalist reporting in December that some were owed up to half a year in wages.

The outlet will however continue to publish content on its website and social media.

Crumbling empire 

The Daily Star was founded in 1952 by Kamel Mroue, then owner and editor-in-chief of the pan-Arab Al Hayat daily newspaper.

The newspaper was bought by businessmen close to former prime minister Saad Hariri in 2010 and is co-owned by Hariri's family, according to a report on media ownership in Lebanon by the Samir Kassir Foundation and Reporters Without Borders.

The Daily Star is just the latest media outlet linked to the former premier to be struggling.

In September last year, Hariri announced the suspension of Future TV, his ailing mouthpiece whose employees had been on strike over unpaid wages.

In January 2019, the Hariri-linked Al Mustaqbal newspaper issued its last print version, 20 years after it was established, though it too maintains a presence online.

Saudi Oger, a once-mighty construction firm that was the basis of the Hariri business empire, collapsed in 2017, leaving thousands jobless.

Hariri stepped down as prime minister in late October under pressure from unprecedented nationwide protests against alleged official corruption and ineptitude.

Last year, The Daily Star published a newsless black issue to protest the political and economic crises gripping the country.

The economic situation has since deteriorated further.

'Time to rethink' 

The economic downturn has left no sector unscathed, starving publications of advertising revenues and traditional sources of funding.

L'Hebdo Magazine, a French-language publication established in 1956, printed its final issue in December because of a drop in advertisement revenues, said a former employee.

"Our advertisers were mainly banks and insurance companies," she told AFP, asking not to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Lebanon's media landscape is rife with privately-owned newspapers affiliated with at least one of the country's many political parties, who are often the primary source of funding.

Ayman Mhanna, director of the Samir Kassir Foundation in Beirut said the economic blow underscored the need for a diverse funding pool.

"The problem is primarily structural, but the current crisis has accelerated closures,” he said.

He added that Lebanese media is usually funded by political groups and a "limited local advertising market".

"It is time for the Lebanese press to rethink its economic model," he said.

"This crisis must be an opportunity to do so."

By Bachir El Khoury