Today, Tuesday, the Iraqi Prime Minister, Muhammad Shia’a Al-Suadni, announced the agreement to resume exporting the oil of the Kurdistan region, stressing the technical authorities immediately direct the implementation of the agreement with Erbil.
Al-Sudani said during a joint press conference with the Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Region, Masrour Barzani: “The agreement confirms the serious and sincere desire of the federal government and the Kurdistan Regional Government to confront the problems that have been inherited for years.”
He added, “The oil and gas law, which we are awaiting to legislate, will address all the imbalances that have accompanied this file since the adoption of the Iraqi constitution.” He pointed out that “the technical authorities must immediately implement the agreement with Erbil and find legal ways for this matter.”
He added that “facing these entitlements in a professional spirit stems from the general interest of all the Iraqi people, whether in the Kurdistan region or the rest of the provinces,” noting that “this is what has been translated into the draft budget law,” expressing his hope that “the House of Representatives will proceed to legislate the budget law in Fastest time to be an umbrella for each file with http details.
And he continued: “We are waiting for an entitlement, which is the legislation of the oil and gas law, which will address all the imbalances that have accompanied this file since the adoption of the Iraqi constitution,” appreciating “the efforts of the two parties in the federal government and the Kurdistan Regional Government for the professional and responsible negotiations that have taken place, and we hope that they will do well in immediately starting implementation.” the agreement”.
Al-Sudani pointed out that “this agreement will pave the way for the passage of the budget law and the provisions it contains. It also developed the outcome of a dialogue that took place between the federal government and the regional government, which dealt with all issues, including the oil and gas file,” noting that “there are files that have been pending for years, and now there is political will and interest.” For all Iraqis to proceed and deal with all these files in the spirit of the constitution and the public interest.
And he indicated that “any delay in export clearly affects the total expected revenues in the 2023 budget, and therefore the deficit rate will increase, and this matter has great harm to all Iraqis. As for the direct implementation of this agreement, it will reduce the damage.”
He noted that “this agreement came as a result of discussions that lasted for several days and in a professional spirit to find a solution to the problem of everyone affected by it, and we must remove all obstacles in order to resume export, enhance public budget revenues and cover the needs as decreed in the budget law,” stressing the need to adhere to Everyone is in this agreement, and it is a temporary agreement until reaching the approval of the budget, which takes on a legal status, covers all obligations, and addresses all problems in this file.
There have been major differences for years between Baghdad and Erbil regarding the mechanism for exporting the Kurdistan region’s oil and dealing with financial revenues.
A few days ago, the export of Iraqi Kurdistan’s oil was suspended after the decision of the arbitral tribunal at the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris, which issued a ruling in favor of Baghdad against Ankara, which imports the region’s oil.
This article was originally published by RT.