Nineveh council debates fuel crisis measures as member mocks sticker proposal

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Members of Iraq's Nineveh provincial council have clashed over proposed measures to address an ongoing fuel shortage in the northern governorate. Ahmed Abd Rabbu, head of the council's Energy Committee, said there was a trend toward replacing the electronic coupon system with vehicle window stickers as an officially adopted method. Abd Rabbu told the agency that the sticker scheme was intended to end the crisis, shorten queues at filling stations and prevent fraud and irregularities in the fuel rations allocated to citizens. Council member Saadun Shammari sharply rejected the proposal, mocking it by suggesting the next step would be requiring a DNA test to obtain a fuel quota. Shammari argued that successive decisions have imposed restrictive measures that harm citizens and worsen their daily hardships. Shammari called for abandoning temporary fixes in favor of permanent regulations that resolve the fuel crisis at its root. No further details on a timeline or implementation plan for either proposal were immediately available.