Iraq has decided to proceed with provisional plans, on hold since the ISIS incursion in June, to build a pipeline to Jordan’s ‘Aqaba port, to carry crude from southern Iraq to markets, MEES understands.

The project, for which preparations were at an advanced stage at the time of the incursion, had been in doubt because the route of the pipeline goes through Ramadi, the Sunni heartland west of Baghdad and the scene of fierce battles between the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) – otherwise known as the Islamic State (IS) – and the Iraqi army (see p14). (CONTINUED - 544 WORDS)