ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The head of Iraq's telecommunications regulator told Rudaw on Saturday that Korek Telecom was "non-compliant" with its decisions and that matters between the two sides had "reached a dead end." The remarks come days after the Erbil-based company described the regulator's suspension of its operations as "illegal."
Baligh Abu Kallal, head of Iraq's Communications and Media Commission (CMC), told Rudaw's Shko Omar that Korek Telecom was "non-compliant with the Commission's decisions" and that "the two sides have reached a dead end."
"The matter is purely technical, and Korek is non-compliant with CMC decisions," Abu Kallal said, adding that the company owes the Commission more than 2 trillion dinars and has debts outside Iraq exceeding one billion dollars.
"So far there is no solution with Korek," he added. "We have begun closing the company's offices in Baghdad."
The CMC said Thursday that it had closed "a number of Korek Telecom's sites in Baghdad" - specifically its sales centers in the Arasat, Mansour, and Palestine Street districts, as well as its main headquarters in the Jadriyah district - in coordination with the Iraqi National Security Service (INSS).
The closures "fall within the framework of implementing the decisions and regulatory measures taken against the company," pertaining to the "suspension of the company's operations," the CMC said in a statement.
A day earlier, the CMC had issued a circular urging Korek subscribers to "take the necessary precautionary measures to ensure continued access to accounts and digital services" by registering alternative numbers.
Abu Kallal reiterated that “citizens should replace their Korek SIM with one from another provider such as AsiaCell or Zain, keep their existing SIM, and update apps including WhatsApp, Telegram, Instagram, and banking applications.”
The CMC and Korek have been locked in a years-long legal dispute that escalated in June, when the regulator announced the expiration of Korek's operating license and cancelled a 2025 settlement agreement over alleged breaches of contractual obligations and financial commitments.
Prior to that, disruptions to Korek's services began in late 2023, when the Commission launched enforcement actions over unpaid financial obligations, cutting the company's internet services outside the Kurdistan Region and blocking interconnected calls with competing networks across Iraq.
Sirwan Barzani, chairman of Korek Telecom's board of directors, on Thursday denounced the CMC's decisions against his company as "illegal" and "implemented outside of regulatory frameworks," adding that the company had "taken legal measures in three Iraqi courts."
Earlier in August, the Erbil-based company had accused the CMC of taking "successive arbitrary measures motivated by the political movement to which its management belongs," appealing directly to Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi to intervene.
Abu Kallal told Rudaw that the two sides "had a full settlement agreement with 14 points, but unfortunately Korek was unable to provide a social security guarantee letter or pay the tax amounts owed to the Iraqi state." He added that the Commission had been patient with the company "for about eight months" and had proposed solutions, "but received no response."
Pushing back on suggestions that the dispute was politically motivated, Abu Kallal said, "If they believe the matter is political based on my affiliation, everyone knows that the relationship between Ammar al-Hakim of the Hikmah Movement and the Barzani family is among the most distinguished."
