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Iraq announced two deals with countries that Iran hopes can be gradually moved further into its sphere of influence. One of the two, Lebanon, is already seen by Tehran as a key player in the Shia crescent of power that it has been meticulously developing for years - as a counterpoint to the U.S.s own sphere of influence centred on Saudi Arabia - that stretches from Syria and Lebanon through Iraq and Iran and then south into Yemen.

According to comments last week from Iraqs new Oil Minister, Ihsan Abdul Jabbar, following a meeting in Baghdad with his Lebanon counterpart, Raymond Ghajar, Iraq will begin exporting fuel to Lebanon this month. The geopolitical imperative underpinning this announcement cannot be overstated, given that Iraq itself suffered from extreme power shortages over the summer and remains subject to intermittent power failures in various regions. So poor is Iraqs own ability to generate sufficient power for its needs based on any sort of fuel that it is locked in to a rolling electricity and gas import deal with Iran that has been the source of extreme friction between it and the U.S. for years. Without any apparent hint of irony, Iraqs Jabbar stated at the time of announcing the new arrangement with Lebanon last week: The exported fuel [is] expected to cover the requirements of the Lebanese power stations to generate electricity.

In a similar vein, the director of Iraqs State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO), Alaa al-Yasiri, said last week that Jordan is currently in negotiations to extend its previous contract to buy crude oil from Iraq, following the end of the previous contract at the end of December. The resumption of crude oil imports by Jordan from Iraq in the middle of last year was widely regarded as a step towards consolidating the Shia crescent of power falling across the region by dint of Iran, although it also served to boost Baghdads beleaguered finances and Jordans energy plans as well. Jordans Energy Minister, Hala Zawati, stated in July of last year that the Kingdom would resume imports of at least 10,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Iraq crude oil via tankers at a discount of US$16 to the Brent price, reflecting transport costs and quality differential. These supplies which had been suspended earlier this year due to the price crash following the oil price war came from Baiji in Iraq direct to the Jordan Petroleum Refinery Company (JPRC), constituting around seven per cent of Jordans daily demand. The original deal that had been struck in 2006 mandated a discount to Brent of US$18 pb, on the basis that Jordan bore the transport costs between Kirkuk in northern Iraq and Zarqa in the Kingdom and presaged a broader build-out of energy ties between the two countries. Related: Biden's Boom: The $30 Trillion ESG Sector Is Set To Explode In 2021

A key part of this build-out is expected to be the resumption of detailed discussions to build a pipeline between the two countries, with the original idea being for a Basra-Aqaba route spanning around 1,700 km, including traversing the ever-volatile Anbar province. The agreement to proceed had been made in 2013 but was then delayed both by the paucity of domestic or international investment required for the build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) contract and by the activities of Islamic State from 2014. A revised route via Najaf was then proposed in 2016 but again failed due to lack of international investment, as did subsequent reiterations of the idea until December last year saw an announcement from Iraqs Oil Ministry that it had completed the prequalifying process for companies interested in participating in the pipeline project. At that point, from the Iraq side, the first phase of the project included the installation of a 700-kilometre-long pipeline with a capacity of 2.25 million barrels within the Iraqi territories. The second phase included installing a 900-kilometre pipeline in Jordan between Haditha and Aqaba with a capacity of one million barrels. The then-Iraq Oil Minister, Thamir Ghadhban, set May 2020 as the final date to receive offers for the project from the qualified companies but this was then delayed due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jordan is also absolutely vital to Irans plans to construct a pan-Arabian electricity power grid, initially focused on the Iraq-Jordan hub but then expanding, with Iran at its centre. According to comments at the end of 2020 from the director general of Jordans National Electric Power Company (NEPCO), Amjad Rawashdeh, preparations are underway for the tender for the construction the Jordan-Iraq electricity power grid, anticipated to be floated at the beginning of this year. In the first stage, the focus of the grid will be on expanding the capacity of Jordans Al Risha plant that will allow for the provision of 150 megawatts of electricity to Iraq for an initial period of three years, although it is renewable with the agreement of both countries. In parallel with this, work will begin on the second phase projects that include building out the electrical exchange capabilities between the two and the establishment of a joint Arab electricity market. In the meantime, Iraqs Electricity Minister, Majid Mahdi Hantoush, announced that not only is Iraq currently working on connecting its grid with Jordans electricity networks through a 300-kilometre-line a project that will be finished within two years - but also plans have been finalised for the completion of Iraqs electricity connection with Egypt within the next three years. Related: Saudi Arabia Starts New Bull Run In Middle East Oil

According to sources in the Presidential Administration of former U.S. President, Donald Trump, exclusively spoken to by OilPrice.com at the time, the announcement of the new Jordan-Iraq electricity initiative was greeted with a split jury. The Iran-Iraq doves regarded the new initiative between Iraq and Jordan as a genuine attempt by Iraq to wean itself off Iranian electricity and gas supplies. After all, over time, the initiative would mean Jordan supplying Iraq with 1,000 gigawatt (GW) hours per year in the first phase of the project (after the completion of the electricity linkage project), and a gradual increase in capacity after that. The Iran-Iraq hawks in Washington, though, believed that this Iraq-sponsored push to build a regional energy grid across the Middle East beginning with the Jordan project - was not an effort to reduce Baghdads dependence on Iran but in reality was aimed at expanding Tehrans regional influence further. In this hawkish context, just a month or so before the relatively new Iraq Prime Minister, Mustafa al-Kadhimi, visited Washington last year, Irans Energy Minister, Reza Ardakanian, stated that Iran and Iraqs power grids had become fully synchronised to provide electricity to both countries. This, he said, was due to the new Amarah-Karkheh 400-KV transmission line stretching over 73 kilometres, which also paves the way for increasing energy exports to Iraq in the near future, from the current 1,361 megawatts per day now. He added that Iranian and Iraqi dispatching centres were now fully connected in Baghdad, the power grids were seamlessly interlinked, and that Iran had signed a three-year co-operation agreement with Iraq to help the countrys power industry in different aspects.

At the same time, it was announced by the Iranian Electrical Power Equipment Manufacturing and Provision Company that Irans electricity exports to other neighbouring countries in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended on 19 March 2020) reached over 8 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh), a mean average increase of 27.6 per cent year-on-year. So far, the countries receiving power from Irans grid are: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, plus, of course, Iraq (which saw an increase of 34.6 per cent from the preceding year). This network does not include the parallel network connections that Iran is consolidating in terms both of direct electricity and gas exchanges, which further includes Turkmenistan and Turkey. Finally, the Iraq-Jordan pipeline would also allow Iran an alternate export line to the historically vulnerable Strait of Hormuz route, to add to the current plans for the Guriyeh-Jask pipeline and plans to roll out a pipeline to Syria as well. It will also provide another cover route for Iranian oil disguised as Iraqi oil, which can then be shipped easily both West and East.

By Simon Watkins for Oilprice.com

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Iran Expands Its Sphere Of Influence With Iraqi Energy Deals - OilPrice.com

Even in a city as robust as Los Angeles, where Lebanese, Syrian, Israeli, Iranian, and Armenian restaurants count in the hundreds, its still easy to get surprised by a simple falafel sometimes. Manaf Alsudaney is the owner of Falafel Chee, a walk-up stand inside of West LA International Market at 10817 Venice Boulevard near Culver City, and on weekends he sells just one thing: warm, airy, crispy Iraqi falafel, either by the piece or wrapped in thin, open Lebanese pita bread. At $3.50 per sandwich, its not only one of the best dishes you can eat in greater LA right now, its one of the best deals, too.

But as with most food stories, the meal itself is just the jumping-off point.

For starters, Alsudaney only works on Saturday and Sunday because he has a whole other gig during the week: Hes a doctor. The clinical research coordinator has worked at Cedars-Sinai for more than two years, but he keeps a deep history with the falafel he loves. In multiple discussions with Alsudaney, he alternatively describes himself as an artist, a chef, a storyteller, and an MD, with a background that starts in Iraq and runs through Detroit, Michigan. Hes a talker, with a hell of a story to share, and that fits the stand just fine, because after you eat your first sandwich, youll probably go right back in for another chat and another round of falafel.

Born in Iraq, Alsudaney earned his degree at the Baghdad School of Medicine. While there, he used his command of the English language to work as a U.S. Army translator, helping with medical needs at hospitals and in the field. The plan was always to parlay that into a United States green card, Alsudaney says, which is how he ended up in Dearborn, Michigan, with its large Iraqi expat population, in 2009.

Within a year, Alsudaney was building a bakery in Detroit with $50,000 he had borrowed from his brother. I used to eat with the Army officers, Alsudaney says over the phone, and they liked shawarma and these other things, but I would take them for falafel. Emboldened by the enthusiasm he found with American servicemen for the pared-down regional falafel style, and pushed by his own passions to simply create, Alsudaney worked to open a place of his own that focused on those hometown techniques and flourishes, including Iraqi samoon breads baked in a brick oven. A disaster with the oven build ensued, and just like that his get-started-in-America money, his brothers life savings, was gone. It was a very sad day for me, he says.

Eventually, Alsudaney was able to turn his business around, making Naba Brick Oven Bakery a formidable name in the competitive market around Detroit, before departing to Southern California in 2017. I used to go to Arabic markets in Orange County, says Alsudaney, They have this kind of restaurant within the international markets. It came to my mind: why not open a space in one of them? As in Michigan, the young Iraqi immigrant felt compelled not just to stick with medicine, at his parents request, but to create a company, with his own hands, to be proud of.

Its easier to understand Alsudaneys motivations once youve tried Falafel Chee. Unlike, say, Palestinian or Israeli falafel, which (broadly speaking) often contains greens and different spices, his is a strictly garbanzo bean mix, crushed and smoothed by hand only. Youre subtracting, says Alsudaney. Sometimes people think the more you add the better taste will come. Im making the original, crispy and pure in taste and smell. When you eat something crispy and fluffy and easy to chew, thats when the fun comes in.

After an attempted launch in Orange County, Alsudaney moved to Culver City and landed at the West LA International Market, but not before building a business plan and tracking down the owner first. I told him Your market brings at least 1,100 people per day, he says of his time convincing the markets owner. They are all free advertising. Once people enter your market and smell, they will see the product and love it. His first week in business came right after Thanksgiving.

The stand itself is tiny, barely more than one person wide and tucked next to the produce bins, but its enough for him and a tray of falafel that he fries on site. There, Alsudaney picks every ball, layers every ingredient from the lettuce and tomato to pickled turnips, and rolls every sandwich. There are a few tweaks to be made, he admits first with the sauces. Customers here are used to tahini, though he prefers the spicy mango amba and date sauce dibis, both of which you can find at Falafel Chee if you ask. Alsudaney swears, one he gets his own place, that hes also going to perfect his samoon bread using another hand-built oven, but for now hes fine with the Lebanese stuff. Mostly, he just wants to believe that its all still possible, that a former translator turned doctor from Baghdad can really make it on the West Coast of America, selling the kind of falafel hes always loved.

This falafel I want to modernize, says Alsudaney. But if you have the brain, and you want to do also the physical thing, and the financial thing, youre not going to make it. You need people who can support you.

The problem with me is, Im the only one.

Falafel Chee is open Saturday and Sunday only inside the West LA International Market at 10817 Venice Blvd., keeping hours from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

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LAs New Falafel Stand Is a One-Man Masterpiece That Hails From Iraq - Eater LA

While Iraq has started to slowly recover from the several waves of conflict that the country has experienced in the past decades, COVID-19 and its social and economic impact has exposed people to new risks, perpetuated existing vulnerabilities and has put additional strain on an already fragile public sector. With petroleum accounting for 92% of the countrys exports, declining oil prices have plummeted the country into a financial and economic crisis, with the World Bank projecting a contraction of the Iraqi GDP of 9.7% in 2020.1,2 While the Iraqi government has been struggling to pay the salaries of the countrys six million public sector employees, millions of others working in the private and informal sector have lost their employment and livelihoods as a result of the COVID-19 crisis.UNICEF and the World Bank are estimating that an additional 4.5 million Iraqis will be pushed below the poverty line in 2020.

With an increase in the unemployment and poverty rates, humanitarian needs across various sectors and population groups are expected to increase drastically in 2020, imposing further hardship on the countrys 2.3 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and 4.8 million returnees.

As the first nationwide household-level assessment following the outbreak of COVID-19 in Iraq, the Multi-Cluster Needs Assessment (MCNA) VIII is well placed to provide context to the current humanitarian situation and the impact of COVID-19. In conjunction with the MCNA VIII dataset and findings, this factsheet aims to provide a evidence base for the humanitarian response to the COVID-19 crisis in Iraq. The factsheet presents secondary data as well as MCNA VIII findings across various sectors that have been impacted by COVID-19 or by the measures that the government has implemented to contain the spread of the virus.

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COVID-19 Context - Iraq - Overview of the humanitarian situation and the impact of COVID-19 - Iraq - ReliefWeb

ROSCOESometimes the things you least expect are the things you are supposed to be doing.

Thats what Chad and Melissa Burgess of Roscoe learned after pouring their lives into their candle and fragrance company. They never imagined they would be hand-pouring candles and shipping them off all over the world.

It was kind of an accident, Chad Burgess said.

Craft + Foster, 9958 N. Alpine Road, Suite 101, Machesney Park, offers unique and modern scents from Bergamot & Oud, Cedar & Cypress, Leather and Teak, Vetiver Woods to Harvest Bourbon, Mistletoe and more that have been picked-up by several well-known brands and companies including Neiman Marcus, FabFitFun, The Skinny Confidential and more.

In Beloit, they are selling their products at Bushel & Pecks Local Market, and partnering with Geronimo Hospitality to provide scents at its hotels.

Chad, originally from Rockford, met his wife in Oceanside, California in 2009, got married and had four children. Melissa, an Iraq War U.S. Army veteran, was working for a church and Chad was in ministry and corporate marketing and sales when the twos talents collided.

Melissa had already encountered some challenges, having grown up in and out of foster care. Having seen what she considered healthy families and their friends over the years, she wanted to one day have a successful family of her own.

I got to see glimpses of what life could be, she said

With a patriotic bent, she had served in the military from 2002 to 2010, including work as a medic for the infantry in Iraq from 2003-2005.

In the early days of their marriage Chad and Melissa were house parents, working with a program for junior high and high school students in foster care.

However in 2015, after Melissa had her third child, her PTSD kicked in full force and she sought out therapeutic solutions.

Melissa said she liked the calming act of pouring candles and the chance to be creative. Soon she sold a batch of candles at a local makers market.

From start to finish, I was making everything with my hands and others were taking it into their worlds, she said.

Within a year and a half their items were sold in hundreds of retail locations across the country. Chad had quit his corporate job to join her in the business.

Making the leap from markets to big retailers was a stretch, including plenty of 16-hour days.

We put our hands to the plow and just did it, she said.

Despite the daunting workload, the couple kept close to their mission of growing the business in hopes of one day using it to help fund a non-profit that would help foster children and veterans. Melissa hopes to hire veterans and eventually get them running their own businesses.

Within a year and a half their products sold in Neiman Marcus and they were collaborating with Hugh Jackmans Laughing Man Coffee Company. They were featured at the Golden Globe Awards, when gift sets including the candles were given to more than 100 A-listers at the event. Their products were also featured on E!.

An avid networker, Chad was often parading the products around which led to mentions by social media influencers.

We will scroll their sites, and see our candles on an A-listers table, Chad said.

Their candles are made with soy wax. Chad and Melissa have created a rinse free hand spray which were big sellers last spring during the early days of the pandemic.

We sold 1,000 of them when we first put them on the website, Melissa said.

They have formulated room sprays and will be launching them in the next months.

Although they have had some challenges getting needed materials such as glass, lids and wicks due to supply chain issues during the pandemic they have carried on.

Melissa still struggles with PTSD but has recently signed up to start counseling. She said the unexpected path of candle making was what finally gave her the firm footing to move forward, something she hopes to share with other veterans in the future.

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Iraq War veteran finds candle business therapeutic | Covid-19 - Beloit Daily News

Chaldean Catholics in Iraq are praying that Pope Francis really will be able to visit their country in March.

Cardinal Louis Sako, the Baghdad-based patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church, composed a prayer for all his faithful to recite together at Masses beginning Jan. 17.

Agenzia Nova, an Italian news agency specializing in international political and economic reporting, published a story Jan. 12 saying that a security and intelligence delegation from Italy had arrived in Iraq to tour possible sites for papal events with Iraqi security officials.

While the Vatican announced the dates for the planned trip -- March 5-8 -- a formal program had not been released as of Jan. 14, and Pope Francis said in an interview Jan. 10 that he was not certain the visit would be possible. There are obvious security concerns, but also questions about the making such a trip in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Still, Fides, the news agency of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, reported Jan. 14 that the Chaldean Catholics were asking "the Almighty Lord to make possible the announced visit of Pope Francis to the land of the two rivers," the Euphrates and the Tigris.

The text of the prayer begins: "Lord our God, grant Pope Francis health and safety to carry out successfully this eagerly awaited visit. Bless his effort to promote dialogue, enhance fraternal reconciliation, build confidence, consolidate peace values and human dignity, especially for us Iraqis who have been through painful events that affected our lives.

"Lord, our Creator, enlighten our hearts with your light to recognize goodness and peace, and to realize them," the prayer continued. "Mother Mary, we entrust Pope Francis' visit to your maternal care so that the Lord may grant us the grace of living in a complete national communion and cooperate fraternally to build a better future for our country and our citizens. Amen."

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Chaldean Catholics in Iraq praying that pope visit will be possible - Union of Catholic Asian News