|
Deal made on Kurd oil, Kirkuk
16.4.2008
|
|
|
|
April
16, 2008
BAGHDAD, -- Iraqi media reports say Baghdad
has agreed to Kurdistan region's oil deals and
stance on a draft oil law in exchange for a delayed
vote on oil-rich Kirkuk.
Meetings in Baghdad between a delegation from the
Kurdistan Regional Government KRG and the central
government have been taking place, and although
there is no official confirmation, Azzaman, Sotal
Iraq and the Voices of Iraq news agency have
reported the agreement.
An agreement on funding for the Peshmerga, the
Kurdish security forces, has reportedly also been
reached.
The KRG and central government have squared off over
the oil law for more than a year. The Kurds favor a
decentralized oil sector, allowing producing
provinces and regions some autonomy in signing deals
with foreign companies.
The central government, however, claims the sole
right to negotiate and sign deals in the oil and gas
sectors. This issue, and the extent foreign firms
should be allowed into Iraq's nationalized oil
sector, are both blocking the oil law.
The KRG has passed its own regional oil law and
signed more than 20 deals. Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani
and other members of the government have called the
deals illegal and have thus far blocked any
companies that signed with the Kurds from entering
the oil sector in the rest of Iraq.
A dispute over the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, as well
as other territories outside the KRG area, plays
into the talks as the Kurds push for a vote to allow
residents to decide whether to join the KRG. A
referendum was called for in the constitution,www.ekurd.net
to
take place by the end of 2007. It's a controversial
item, however, since the area's Arabs and Turkomen
populations, among others, disagree on whether
Kirkuk should join.
The United Nations negotiated in December a
six-month moratorium in order to resolve the issue.
This week's talks in Baghdad, however, may see
another six-month extension in exchange for Baghdad
recognizing the KRG oil deals, according to media
reports.
This would be a major coup for the Kurds and a
strong hit on Shahristani, who has been championing
the pushback against the KRG deals while both
negotiating oil deals with major oil firms and
readying for Iraq's first round of oil and gas field
tenders.
Rochdi Younsi, Middle East analyst for the business
risk firm Eurasia Group, said if such a deal is
realized it will harm the credibility of Shahristani
and only delay a row over Kirkuk. And it could be a
move by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to shore up
needed political support.
"If a deal with Kurdish leaders is indeed in the
making,www.ekurd.net
Prime Minister al-Maliki cannot secure the
support of all Iraqi factions for it," Younsi said.
"But in the context of Iraqi politics, competing
political leaders will continue their efforts to
avoid the worst by seeking short-term solutions to a
multitude of complex sectarian, political and
economic disputes."
Kirkuk city is historically a Kurdish city
and it lies just south border of the Kurdistan
autonomous region, the population is a mix of
majority Kurds and minority of Arabs, Christians and
Turkmen. lies 250 km northeast of Baghdad. Kurds
have a strong cultural and emotional attachment to Kirkuk,
which they call "the Kurdish Jerusalem.".
The article 140 in Iraqi constitution calls for conducting a census to be
followed by a referendum to let the inhabitants
decide whether they would like Kirkuk to be annexed
to the autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region or having
it as an independent province.
These stages were supposed to end on December 31,
2007, a deadline that was later extended to six
months.
The former regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein
had forced over 250,000 Kurdish residents to give up
their homes to Arabs in the 1970s, to "Arabize" the city
and the region's oil industry.
Kurds seek to include the city in the autonomous
Iraq's Kurdistan region, while Sunni Muslims,
Turkmen and Shiites oppose the incorporation. The
article currently stipulates that all Arabs in
Kirkuk be returned to their original locations in
southern and central Iraqi areas, and formerly
displaced residents returned to Kirkuk.
Copyright, respective author or news agency, UPI,
VOI, Agencies
Top |
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the content of news
information on this page
|
® 