Shafaq News- Kirkuk

A Baghdad court has ordered a halt to regulatory measures against Korek Telecom, an Iraqi lawmaker said on Sunday, offering a temporary easing of the growing dispute between the telecommunications company and Iraq’s Communications and Media Commission (CMC).

In a press conference at the Iraqi parliament, MP Ikhlas al-Dulaimi, from the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) bloc, described Korek as the only company considered wholly Iraqi-owned and not subject to foreign partnerships, warning that the measures recently taken against the company would harm Iraqi citizens before affecting Korek itself.

Criticizing CMC calls to cancel customers’ SIM cards and switch them to competing operators, she stressed that the dispute should be resolved through legal and administrative channels. She also raised concerns over the suspension of interconnection services, cautioning that disruptions to customers’ communications and the rights of hundreds of thousands of subscribers could discourage investment in Iraq’s telecommunications and technology sector.

On August 20, the CMC closed Korek’s main Baghdad office and three sales centers in Al-Arasat, Palestine Street and Al-Mansour, in coordination with the Iraqi National Security Service.

The standoff escalated on Saturday when Baligh Abu Kalal, the CMC’s executive chief, declared that efforts to resolve the dispute with Korek had reached a dead end, describing the dispute as regulatory rather than political. The regulator had also canceled a settlement agreement with Korek, accusing the company of failing to meet its obligations, and has since begun procedures to halt its network and restrict its movable and immovable assets.

Korek has rejected the measures as arbitrary and challenged the CMC’s authority to cancel the 2025 settlement, maintaining that the agreement followed “recommendations” from a government committee and approval by the commission’s board.

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