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Nechirvan Barzani says we will reject the
Iraq oil law if major changes were made to the draft
5.7.2007
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July
5, 2007
Erbil-Hewler, Kurdistan (Iraq), -- The
prime minister of Iraqi Kurdistan Nechirvan Barzani
said on Wednesday his government will not agree to
the oil law if major amendments were made to the
draft.
"We announced our agreement on the draft oil law,
but the Iraqi government sent the draft to the State
Shoura Council, a supreme legal body that supervises
the wording of laws before sending them to
parliament, and the amended draft law was approved
without notifying the Kurdistan government of the
final version of the draft," Barzani said in a press
conference in Erbil on Wednesday afternoon.
The Kurdistan prime minister added, "if the
amendments made by the Shoura Council were purely
linguistic we will not oppose the law, but if there
were major amendments we will not accept it."
"A version of the approved oil law will be received
by the Kurdistan government today," Barzani noted. |
Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Prime Minister
Nechirvan Barzani. |
The government of Iraq's Kurdistan region said on
Wednesday that it welcomed the ratification of the
oil law by the Iraqi cabinet after some amendments
made by the Iraqi government, however it underlined
that it rejects these amendments. "We are very happy
with the Iraqi cabinet's ratification of the oil
law, however we reject these amendments, and despite
the fact that the Kurdistan government was a main
part of the negotiations on the oil law, it was not
updated with the ratification of the final draft
law," the Kurdistan government said.
"The legal committee in the Iraqi cabinet made some
amendments to the law without updating the Kurdish
government," the statement explained, adding no
further details about the nature of the amendments.
On Tuesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki
said his government approved the oil law and would
send it to parliament for ratification.
The Kurdish statement said, "the Kurdistan
government hopes that the Iraqi government did not
ratify the law with the points it had already
rejected, because it would be considered a violation
of the Kurdistan region's constitutional rights."
Meanwhile, the Kurdish official unveiled that the
central government agreed to send Kurdish forces to
secure electricity towers and oil derivatives that
pass through the highway linking Baiji, 250 km north
of Baghdad, and Kirkuk city on the Kurdistan region
border with (Iraq) 250 km northeast of Baghdad, to
reach the Kurdistan region in northern Iraq. "We are
preparing forces to be deployed along the highway to
ensure that electricity and fuel will reach the
Kurdistan region," Barzani told reporters.
The Kurdish official also launched an initiative to
provide protection for the two sacred Shiite shrines
in Samarra, saying, "we believe that these shrines
do not belong to a certain sect, rather they are
holy in the eyes of all Muslims, Shiite, Sunnis and
Kurds."
"We said to the Iraqi government that we are
prepared to provide protection and to send Kurdish
forces there," Barzani added.
On June 18 unknown gunmen blew up the two minarets
of the revered Shiite shrine in Samarra for the
second time, after blowing up the shrine's dome in
February 2006.
VOI
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