“Tidbits From TNT” Sunday Morning 12-7-2025

TNT:

Tishwash:  Iraq achieves a historic leap in the speed of international trade through the TIR system

The International Road Transport Union (IRU) confirmed in a report on Friday that Iraq has become a strategic and rapid transit hub for international trade, having shortened the time it takes to transport large shipments from Europe to the region from weeks to just a few days.

The report, which Kalima News reviewed, stated that "the successful transfer of film equipment from Hungary to Jordan via the Iraqi international road in just six days, after it used to take five weeks, is evidence of a major transformation."

The report noted that "this achievement highlights Iraq's growing role as a vital link connecting Europe with the Gulf and Middle Eastern countries, especially with the expansion of the use of the international (TIR) ​​customs system, which speeds up procedures and reduces stops at borders."

The report noted that “the digital expansion of the system and the activation of transit routes through Iraq will enhance the country’s position on the global trade map, and will encourage the private sector to adopt the Iraqi route because of the time and cost savings it provides.”

It is worth noting that the Ministry of Transport had previously announced the implementation of successful trips within the (TIR) ​​system, as more than 1,000 land transport operations were recorded on the Dohuk-Umm Qasr line since last June, reflecting a remarkable growth in commercial transport across Iraqi lands.  link

Tishwash:  An endless crisis: Why hasn't the oil and gas law been released from the drawers for 20 years?

For more than a decade, the energy sector in the Kurdistan Region has been a silent arena for an unresolved economic and political struggle. Despite the growing need for oil and gas within Iraq, what energy experts describe as a "systematic obstruction" of any attempt to develop the region's production infrastructure continues.

Energy expert and head of the Sustainable Energy Organization, Mohammed Amin Hawramani, confirms to "Baghdad Today" that internal parties in Baghdad have been "obstructing any expansion in the oil and gas sector in Kurdistan for years," whether by opposing the development of fields or limiting the work of foreign companies, despite the region's direct reliance on these sources to secure its needs for energy and oil derivatives.

Horamani points out that the Kurdistan Region, in accordance with its constitutional right, enacted an oil and gas law within its regional parliament, before the Federal Constitutional Court struck it down "in the absence of a federal oil and gas law that should have been passed nearly two decades ago."

The constitution clearly stipulates the necessity of enacting a federal law to regulate the management of oil wealth, but accumulated political disputes have left the issue unresolved for more than twenty years, creating a legislative vacuum with far-reaching economic consequences for both Baghdad and Erbil.

With the region's oil exports halted for over two years due to a complaint from the Iraqi Ministry of Oil, losses mounted before exports resumed later under a tripartite agreement between Baghdad, the region, and foreign companies.

 However, according to Horamani, the delay was not technical; rather, it reflected, in his view, "a genuine reluctance on the part of some to allow the region to manage its own production or exports," even though all sales are conducted through SOMO (State Oil Marketing Organization).

He adds that international and American pressure was a decisive factor in pushing Baghdad to accept the resumption of pumping, especially with the decline in global oil prices during the past three years to below the price adopted in the budget law ($70 per barrel), which made the federal government more dependent on the region’s revenues to finance the salaries item.

The expert points out that Iraq is "practically obligated to continue exporting via the Turkish Ceyhan pipeline," not only to secure revenues, but also to maintain a sensitive oil-water exchange equation with Ankara, which makes the energy route part of a broader network of regional interests.

For nearly twenty years, the federal oil and gas law remained inoperative despite being included in the constitution, leading to an unstable regulatory environment that affected long-term investments, disrupted domestic gas development plans, and kept the relationship between Baghdad and Erbil hostage to temporary understandings that changed with the change of governments.

Even today, the absence of this legislation remains one of the biggest factors hindering the building of a cohesive energy market within Iraq, and delaying the transition towards more efficient management of oil wealth, both in the region and in the rest of the provinces.  link

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Tishwash:  The collapse of the Iranian currency: a crisis that shakes markets and confounds Kurdistan's traders.

The Iranian rial has been experiencing a sharp decline for days, the most severe in years, in a rapid downward wave that has cast a shadow over the markets of Iraqi Kurdistan, especially the banking sector, which relies heavily on the movement of the toman in daily buying and selling.

According to a Shafaq News Agency correspondent in Sulaymaniyah, the price of 100 US dollars reached about 12 million and 150 thousand Iranian Tomans, an unprecedented level that prompted many traders to recalculate their accounts.

Kawa Yahya, a currency trader in Sulaymaniyah, told Shafaq News that the recent decline was unexpected, stressing that demand for the dollar inside Iran rose exceptionally following the escalation of tensions between Tehran and both the United States and Israel, which put direct pressure on the local currency.

Yahya points out that what is happening today cannot be explained by economic standards alone, and in his opinion, "the political factor is the main driver of the current decline," expressing surprise that a country with such broad local self-sufficiency as that achieved in Iran cannot prevent this decline in its currency.

He adds that many currency traders in the Kurdistan Region have suffered significant losses as a result of the rapid decline, especially those who had been holding large quantities of Toman during the past period.

In the context of a broader economic analysis, economist Ismail Mohammed reveals to Shafaq News Agency that the current crisis has complex roots, starting from the outside and not ending at the inside.

The expert confirms that the deterioration of relations between Iran and the United States and European countries has put the local currency under direct political pressure, saying that "any disturbance between a country and America or Europe is quickly reflected in the value of its currency, and the Iranian rial is no exception."

But at the same time, he points to the existence of concurrent internal reasons, represented by a package of economic decisions that the Iranian government is preparing to implement at the beginning of next year, most notably raising fuel prices and increasing the prices of a number of local goods in exchange for government plans to raise employee salaries, which are measures that he believes will double the pressure on the currency and open the door to a new wave of inflation.

The agency's correspondent reports that the currency exchange markets in Sulaymaniyah, Halabja and Garmian have witnessed a clear state of confusion over the past two days, as a number of traders have reduced their transactions in Toman while waiting for the market to stabilize, while others reported a decline in demand from customers who usually relied on the Iranian currency for daily transfers or for purchasing goods coming from the Iranian side.

This decline comes in the context of a long downward trend witnessed by the Iranian currency during 2025. According to a quick tracking, the year began with a price of approximately 4.8 million tomans per 100 dollars, then it rose to about 7.5 million tomans in the middle of the year following a new round of US sanctions.

With the fall, and with the increase in regional tensions, the price exceeded 10 million tomans, reaching 11.15 million tomans in December, which is the lowest level in more than ten years.

Analysts agree that continued political tension and the absence of radical economic solutions could push the currency down further in the coming weeks unless Tehran intervenes with effective steps to curb the decline.  link

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Mot: Just Think bout This un!!! What a Job!!!!