On an abandoned sidewalk in Baghdad, under strict government curfew to contain the novel coronavirus, a handful of volunteers with masks and gloves make food packages for needy families.

"What we're doing is a humanitarian duty towards society, and anyone who can afford it should do the same," said Abu Hashim, an Iraqi businessman in his fifties packing non-perishable goods outside a lonely storefront in the Iraqi capital's east.

The health ministry says COVID-19 has killed 56 Iraqis and infected more than 800 others. But many suspect the real numbers to be much higher, as only a few thousand people from a population of 40 million have been tested.

In a bid to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic, authorities have imposed a countrywide lockdown, ordering schools and most shops shut.

While the government is still paying salaries and pensions to millions, Iraq's modest private-sector economy has come to a grinding halt overnight. &nbsp;

Iraq is OPEC's second-biggest oil producer, but is ranked among the 20 most corrupt countries in the world by Transparency International. The World Bank says one in five Iraqis lives under the poverty line.

Sensing that relying on authorities would be unwise, young activists, community figures and local religious leaders have come together to try to support those with no income.

Using donations to buy essentials, like lentils, beans, rice and sugar, they pack supplies in plastic bags, talk their way through checkpoints and distribute them across the city. &nbsp;

'More dangerous than Daesh'

Mustafa Issa, a 31-year-old Iraqi Shiite Muslim who helps distribute food to more than 450 families, told AFP he felt bound by a religious duty to help.

"It's not like when we were under embargo in the 1990s," he said, referring to crippling international sanctions imposed on Iraq under former dictator Saddam Hussein that made even basic foodstuffs unavailable.

"Baghdad is full of food right now, but people can't buy it. One construction worker we support has a family of eight, and suddenly has no income. Another man had sold his cooking gas canister to buy food. A third sold his phone," he said.&nbsp;

In a society that deeply values abundance and generosity, particularly at the dinner table, some are too proud to admit they need help.

"One woman walked halfway across the city to ask for help at another mosque so no one from her own neighbourhood would recognise her," Issa said. &nbsp;

One government official told AFP that almost half the population could be food-poor by May, adding that authorities were studying options for subsidies.

The country imports most of its staples, including rice, meat and wheat. Officials say Iraq's $60 billion in reserves would cover more than a year of food imports, but already prime minister-designate Adnan Zurfi on Saturday expressed worry that the government might have to cut public-sector wages.&nbsp;

Issa was not taking any chances.

"We don't know when this crisis will end. It could go on until July. Some of us are storing goods for later," he said.&nbsp;

"This is more dangerous than Daesh," he added, referring to the Islamic State jihadist group that swept through a third of Iraq in 2014.

That conflict further ravaged Iraq's dilapidated medical infrastructure, and there are fears a spike in COVID-19 cases would overwhelm hospitals. &nbsp;

'Until God saves us'

Iraq, which relies on oil revenues for more than 90 per cent of its state budget, is also facing the lowest crude prices in more than a decade and a paralysed political class unable to reach consensus over a new cabinet. &nbsp;

Some Iraqis are taking public health into their own hands.&nbsp;

Asaad al-Saadi, 40, has turned his Baghdad home into a makeshift workshop, producing face masks to help prevent the transmission of COVID-19. &nbsp;

"I saw the pandemic was spreading quickly and the simplest ways to fight it weren't available," Saadi said.

He bought two sewing machines and now produces around 1,000 masks per day. They are distributed in packs of 10 to needy families.

Saadi is also considering making other kinds of protective gear for under-equipped health workers. &nbsp;

Such grassroots efforts have swept through the provincial capitals of the south, down to the oil-rich port city of Basra. &nbsp;

Some are led by Iraqi women, in a country that remains broadly conservative and where just 15 per cent of working-age women are employed.&nbsp;

Free food, money discretely slipped to desperate Iraqis, landlords suspending rent payments -- initiatives all independent of government or political directives.

Mohammad Jabboury, a farm owner in Iraq's west organising food distributions and urging landlords to lower rents, expressed a sense of obligation towards those less fortunate.

"It's our duty to help those in need until God saves us from this pandemic," he said.

On an abandoned sidewalk in Baghdad, under strict government curfew to contain the novel coronavirus, a handful of volunteers with masks and gloves make food packages for needy families.

On an abandoned sidewalk in Baghdad, under strict government curfew to contain the novel coronavirus, a handful of volunteers with masks and gloves make food packages for needy families. "What we're doing is a humanitarian duty towards society, and anyone who can afford it should do the same," said Abu Hashim, an Iraqi businessman in his fifties packing non-perishable goods outside a lonely storefront in the Iraqi capital's east. The health ministry says COVID-19 has killed 56 Iraqis and infected more than 800 others. But many suspect the real numbers to be much higher, as only a few thousand people from a population of 40 million have been tested. In a bid to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic, authorities have imposed a countrywide lockdown, ordering schools and most shops shut. While the government is still paying salaries and pensions to millions, Iraq's modest private-sector economy has come to a grinding halt overnight. Iraq is OPEC's second-biggest oil producer, but is ranked among the 20 most corrupt countries in the world by Transparency International. The World Bank says one in five Iraqis lives under the poverty line. Sensing that relying on authorities would be unwise, young activists, community figures and local religious leaders have come together to try to support those with no income. Using donations to buy essentials, like lentils, beans, rice and sugar, they pack supplies in plastic bags, talk their way through checkpoints and distribute them across the city. 'More dangerous than Daesh' Mustafa Issa, a 31-year-old Iraqi Shiite Muslim who helps distribute food to more than 450 families, told AFP he felt bound by a religious duty to help. "It's not like when we were under embargo in the 1990s," he said, referring to crippling international sanctions imposed on Iraq under former dictator Saddam Hussein that made even basic foodstuffs unavailable. "Baghdad is full of food right now, but people can't buy it. One construction worker we support has a family of eight, and suddenly has no income. Another man had sold his cooking gas canister to buy food. A third sold his phone," he said. In a society that deeply values abundance and generosity, particularly at the dinner table, some are too proud to admit they need help. "One woman walked halfway across the city to ask for help at another mosque so no one from her own neighbourhood would recognise her," Issa said. One government official told AFP that almost half the population could be food-poor by May, adding that authorities were studying options for subsidies. The country imports most of its staples, including rice, meat and wheat. Officials say Iraq's $60 billion in reserves would cover more than a year of food imports, but already prime minister-designate Adnan Zurfi on Saturday expressed worry that the government might have to cut public-sector wages. Issa was not taking any chances. "We don't know when this crisis will end. It could go on until July. Some of us are storing goods for later," he said. "This is more dangerous than Daesh," he added, referring to the Islamic State jihadist group that swept through a third of Iraq in 2014. That conflict further ravaged Iraq's dilapidated medical infrastructure, and there are fears a spike in COVID-19 cases would overwhelm hospitals. 'Until God saves us' Iraq, which relies on oil revenues for more than 90 per cent of its state budget, is also facing the lowest crude prices in more than a decade and a paralysed political class unable to reach consensus over a new cabinet. Some Iraqis are taking public health into their own hands. Asaad al-Saadi, 40, has turned his Baghdad home into a makeshift workshop, producing face masks to help prevent the transmission of COVID-19. "I saw the pandemic was spreading quickly and the simplest ways to fight it weren't available," Saadi said. He bought two sewing machines and now produces around 1,000 masks per day. They are distributed in packs of 10 to needy families. Saadi is also considering making other kinds of protective gear for under-equipped health workers. Such grassroots efforts have swept through the provincial capitals of the south, down to the oil-rich port city of Basra. Some are led by Iraqi women, in a country that remains broadly conservative and where just 15 per cent of working-age women are employed. Free food, money discretely slipped to desperate Iraqis, landlords suspending rent payments -- initiatives all independent of government or political directives. Mohammad Jabboury, a farm owner in Iraq's west organising food distributions and urging landlords to lower rents, expressed a sense of obligation towards those less fortunate. "It's our duty to help those in need until God saves us from this pandemic," he said.

Iraqis rally to help needy families as virus hits, economy falters

Iraq&#39;s government would consider selling crude through Iran should talks with the autonomous Kurdish region on an oil revenue-sharing agreement fail, a senior oil ministry official in Baghdad told Reuters. 
 
Iraq&#39;s State Oil Marketing Organisation (SOMO) plans to hold talks with the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), possibly next week, about Iraqi oil exported through Turkey, Deputy Oil Minister Fayadh al-Nema said in an interview on Friday evening. 
 
&quot;If the negotiations come to a close&quot; without an agreement &quot;we will start to find a way in order to sell our oil because we need money, either to Iran or other countries&quot;, he said by telephone. 
 
Iraq, OPEC&#39;s second-largest producer after Saudi Arabia, depends on oil sales for 95 per cent of its public income. Its economy is reeling under the double impact of low oil prices and the war against Islamic State militants. 
 
The Kurdistan region produces around 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) on its territory and exports those volumes via Turkey. Baghdad would not be able to reroute those volumes to Iran but could order shipments of some 150,000 bpd via Iran that is being produced in the nearby province of Kirkuk.&nbsp; 
 
An agreement between Iran and Iraq could function in a similar fashion as oil swap deals Tehran has had with Caspian Sea nations, according to an oil official who asked not to be identified. 
 
Iran would import Iraqi oil to its refineries and export an equivalent amount of its own crude on behalf of Baghdad from Iranian ports on the Gulf. Iraq has ports on the Gulf but they are not linked to the northern Kirkuk fields by pipeline. 
 
Iraq&#39;s state-run North Oil Company resumed pumping crude through the Kurdish-controlled pipeline to Turkey last week as &quot;a sign of goodwill to invite them (the Kurds) to start negotiations,&quot; Nema said. 
 
He said pumping had resumed on the instruction of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi following &quot;some understanding&quot; between Baghdad and Erbil. Abadi said on Tuesday the decision had been made to avoid damage to reservoirs. 
 
The flow of crude extracted from Kirkuk by North Oil and pumped in the pipeline has been running at about 75,000 bpd since last week, or half the rate before it was halted in March, Nema said. 
 
Should there be an agreement with the Kurds, flow through the pipeline would be increased to more than 100,000 bpd, not to the previous level of 150,000 bpd, he added. 
 
Nema said about 20,000 bpd would be supplied to the refinery of Suleimaniya, in the Kurdish region, and 30,000 bpd would be refined locally in Kirkuk. 
 
The pipeline carries crude to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, where the Kurds have been selling it independently on the international market, along with oil produced in their northern region. 
 
The Kurdish government has been calling on Baghdad since March to resume the pumping of Kirkuk crude in full to help Erbil fund its war against Islamic State. Sources in Erbil have said splitting the Kirkuk flows would divide the Kurds and complicate the task of fighting the ultra-hardline militants. 
 
A KRG spokesman in June told Reuters the Kurds are ready to strike an agreement with Baghdad if it guarantees them a&nbsp;monthly revenue of $1 billion, more than double what they make currently from selling their own oil. 
 
The dispute revolves around Kurdish oil exports that Baghdad wants to bring under its control. 
 
&quot;If Baghdad comes and says &#39;OK, give me all the oil that you have and I&#39;ll give you the 17 per cent as per the budget&#39;, which equals to 1 billion, I think, logically it should be the thing to accept,&quot; KRG spokesman Safeen Dizayee said in June. 
 
&quot;Whether this oil goes to the international market or first to Baghdad and then to the market, it doesn&#39;t make any difference,&quot; he added. &quot;We are ready to enter dialogue with Baghdad.&quot; 
 
The Kurdish government stopped delivering crude oil to the central government about a year ago, a decision taken when Baghdad&#39;s payment fell under $400 million a month, Dizayee said. 
 
It is also in a dispute with the central government over Kirkuk, where North Oil produces its crude and which the Kurds claim as part of their territory. The Kurds took control of the region two years ago, after the Iraqi army disintegrated when Islamic State overran a third of the country. 
 
(Reuters)

Iraq's State Oil Marketing Organisation plans to hold revenue sharing talks with the Kurdish Regional Government, possibly next week

Iraq's government would consider selling crude through Iran should talks with the autonomous Kurdish region on an oil revenue-sharing agreement fail, a senior oil ministry official in Baghdad told Reuters. Iraq's State Oil Marketing Organisation (SOMO) plans to hold talks with the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), possibly next week, about Iraqi oil exported through Turkey, Deputy Oil Minister Fayadh al-Nema said in an interview on Friday evening. "If the negotiations come to a close" without an agreement "we will start to find a way in order to sell our oil because we need money, either to Iran or other countries", he said by telephone. Iraq, OPEC's second-largest producer after Saudi Arabia, depends on oil sales for 95 per cent of its public income. Its economy is reeling under the double impact of low oil prices and the war against Islamic State militants. The Kurdistan region produces around 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) on its territory and exports those volumes via Turkey. Baghdad would not be able to reroute those volumes to Iran but could order shipments of some 150,000 bpd via Iran that is being produced in the nearby province of Kirkuk. An agreement between Iran and Iraq could function in a similar fashion as oil swap deals Tehran has had with Caspian Sea nations, according to an oil official who asked not to be identified. Iran would import Iraqi oil to its refineries and export an equivalent amount of its own crude on behalf of Baghdad from Iranian ports on the Gulf. Iraq has ports on the Gulf but they are not linked to the northern Kirkuk fields by pipeline. Iraq's state-run North Oil Company resumed pumping crude through the Kurdish-controlled pipeline to Turkey last week as "a sign of goodwill to invite them (the Kurds) to start negotiations," Nema said. He said pumping had resumed on the instruction of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi following "some understanding" between Baghdad and Erbil. Abadi said on Tuesday the decision had been made to avoid damage to reservoirs. The flow of crude extracted from Kirkuk by North Oil and pumped in the pipeline has been running at about 75,000 bpd since last week, or half the rate before it was halted in March, Nema said. Should there be an agreement with the Kurds, flow through the pipeline would be increased to more than 100,000 bpd, not to the previous level of 150,000 bpd, he added. Nema said about 20,000 bpd would be supplied to the refinery of Suleimaniya, in the Kurdish region, and 30,000 bpd would be refined locally in Kirkuk. The pipeline carries crude to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, where the Kurds have been selling it independently on the international market, along with oil produced in their northern region. The Kurdish government has been calling on Baghdad since March to resume the pumping of Kirkuk crude in full to help Erbil fund its war against Islamic State. Sources in Erbil have said splitting the Kirkuk flows would divide the Kurds and complicate the task of fighting the ultra-hardline militants. A KRG spokesman in June told Reuters the Kurds are ready to strike an agreement with Baghdad if it guarantees them a monthly revenue of $1 billion, more than double what they make currently from selling their own oil. The dispute revolves around Kurdish oil exports that Baghdad wants to bring under its control. "If Baghdad comes and says 'OK, give me all the oil that you have and I'll give you the 17 per cent as per the budget', which equals to 1 billion, I think, logically it should be the thing to accept," KRG spokesman Safeen Dizayee said in June. "Whether this oil goes to the international market or first to Baghdad and then to the market, it doesn't make any difference," he added. "We are ready to enter dialogue with Baghdad." The Kurdish government stopped delivering crude oil to the central government about a year ago, a decision taken when Baghdad's payment fell under $400 million a month, Dizayee said. It is also in a dispute with the central government over Kirkuk, where North Oil produces its crude and which the Kurds claim as part of their territory. The Kurds took control of the region two years ago, after the Iraqi army disintegrated when Islamic State overran a third of the country. (Reuters)

Iraq plans to sell oil through Iran if talks with Kurds fail

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Iraqis rally to help needy families as virus hits, economy falters

Iraq plans to sell oil through Iran if talks with Kurds fail