Kuwaiti-French joint venture Iraq Telecom (IT) has won almost $3 billion in two separate arbitrations against Kurdistan-based Iraqi mobile phone operator Korek Telecom but enforcing the awards is expected to be onerous due to the difficulty of tracing assets associated with the respondents.

Earlier this week, Kuwait's Agility Public Warehousing announced on the Dubai Financial Market that it had won a $1.17 billion International Chamber of Commerce arbitration award over a loan extended to Korek to help it meet licence payment instalments. Weeks earlier, the DIFC Courts also approved a sizable award in a related shareholder dispute. On August 29, the DIFC Courts upheld a $1.65 billion sum to IT and its affiliate, International Holdings (IH), related to breaches of a shareholders' agreement, in an ICC judgement against Korek and its chairman, Kurdish businessman Sirwan Barzani.