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Iraqi Kurdistan Government demand oil
minister's resignation
14.9.2007
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September
14, 2007
Erbil-Hewler, Kurdistan region (Iraq), --
Iraq's northern Kurdistan administration has
demanded Baghdad's oil minister be sacked, following
his remarks that oil contracts signed by the
regional government are "illegal."
The call by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG)
late Thursday deals another blow to attempts by
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to forge a national
consenus on the controversial issue of dividing up
the spoils of Iraq's vast oil reserves.
Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani should quit
rather than "interfere in the internal affairs" of
the Kurdish region, KRG spokesman Khalid Saleh told
reporters in Arbil.
Shahristani at a recent meeting of OPEC in Vienna
said that all oil contracts signed in Iraq's Kurdish
region are "illegal"
as a controversial oil law is yet to be passed in
the parliament.
The regional government has signed contracts with
several global oil companies to explore crude oil in
its region, which houses the bulk of the country's
oil reserves.
Kurdish officials say they will honour the
contracts, and also claim to have reached an
agreement with Baghdad whereby it will receive 17
percent of the country's oil revenues.
In a separate statement, the
KRG said the
minister was "strongly advised to stay out of issues
over which he has no authority."
"But once again he has repeated his false mantra of
'it is illegal'. Unfortunately this has been his way
of dealing with the legitimate concerns of the hard
working oil union members in the south, with the
achievements of the KRG or with any other
organisation that he does not like."
The statement said the minister must focus on
preventing "illegal oil smuggling under his watch,
which is crippling the Iraqi economy."
Saleh said if Shahristani failed in this he should
resign and allow some other "person more qualified
than him" to do his job.
The regional government also accused the minister of
favouring contracts signed with companies who
operated during the former regime of Saddam Hussein.
"The answer is to get on with the agreed draft oil
law and present it without changes to the
parliament. That way we will all get on with the
task of developing the oil industry for the benefit
of the people," the KRG said.
Iraq's oil infrastructure has been hit by decades of
under-investment as a result of successive Gulf
wars, 13 years of UN sanctions and the rampant
insecurity that followed the US-led liberation in
2003.
Washington regards passage of the controversial oil
legislation as key to efforts at national
reconciliation in the country which is wracked by an
insurgency and sectarian violence.
US President George W. Bush in his televised address
to the nation late Thursday bluntly acknowledged he
was not satisfied with the pace of Iraqi political
reforms that Washington views as critical to forging
national unity.
"The government has not met its own legislative
benchmarks," said Bush, who directed a message to
Iraq's people that "you must demand that your
leaders make the tough choices needed to achieve
reconciliation."
The draft oil and gas law provides for earnings to
be shared equally between Iraq's 18 provinces in a
bid to allay Sunni fears they will be monopolised by
Kurdish and Shiite provinces which contain the
oilfields.
But it also opens up Iraq's long state-controlled
hydrocarbons sector to foreign involvement.
The draft law was passed by Maliki's cabinet in July
but faces tough passage in the 275-seat legislature,
where the Kurdish bloc has 53 seats.
AFP
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