Following a political backlash in Iran over details of its plans to make Iran effectively a client state through various multi-layered oil and gas deals, China has switched its attention – for the time being at least – to Iran’s equally oil and gas-rich neighbor, Iraq. China has the advantage in Iraq that the northern part of the country – the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan – is already under the control of its increasingly close ally, Russia, with its corporate proxy Rosneft having secured control over Kurdistan’s oil and gas infrastructure in a deal in November 2017. Bridging this gap beautifully is the new development that in the long-running dispute between the south and the north regarding budget disbursements from Baghdad to Erbil in exchange for oil supplies from Erbil to Baghdad, China is to be appointed by Baghdad as its mediator in negotiations, a senior source who works […]