Iraqi crude production and exports continued today, unaffected by deadly protests that broke out in the capital Baghdad on 29 August. But the risk of disruption remains high, with videos circulating on social media of protesters camping outside oil facilities.
"Exports have not been affected until now and production is steady but protestors have gathered in front of the gates of many oil fields," a senior oil ministry official told Argus. "We need to monitor the protesters camping outside the gates of the fields in Basrah and see if that will affect production or not because oil facilities employees cannot be changed according to shifts," the official said.
A decision by powerful Iraqi Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to quit politics led to heavy clashes in Baghdad yesterday, with at least 20 people killed as the cleric's supporters faced off against rival Shia armed groups aligned with Iran. Militants fired several rockets at Baghdad's fortified Green Zone on Tuesday as clashes spilled into a second day, according to Iraq's military.
The violence represents a major escalation in the power struggle between Iraq's two main Shia camps that has intensified followed last October's parliamentary elections. The Sadrists and the pro-Iran Co-ordination Framework, composed of several political groups and militias, are at loggerheads over who rules the country and in what direction. The Sadrist movement won the most seats in the elections but an alliance with Kurdish and Sunni parties did not yield enough seats to form a government. Iraq's Shia majority has ruled the country since the 2003 US-invasion toppled former Sunni president Saddam Hussein.
Al-Sadr loyalists stormed the presidential and government palaces in Baghdad's Green Zone on 29 August after the cleric announced his "final withdrawal and the closure of all [Sadrist] institutions ". Al-Sadr added that some of his cultural and religious institutions are to remain open.
Iraq's Joint Operations Command declared an open-ended curfew across all Iraqi provinces last night and urged protesters to leave the Green Zone. The US government has described the unrest as "disturbing" and has called for "dialogue" to ease the country's political crisis. Meanwhile, Iran has closed its borders with Iraq and urged its citizens to avoid travelling there, a senior Iranian official said on Tuesday. Iranian state television also reported that flights to Iraq have been halted "until further notice".
