The central government and the autonomous region have reached a compromise on the management of crude oil. Baghdad will receive 550 thousand barrels per day; Erbil will receive 17% of the national budget, to pay salaries and support the Peshmerga. Behind the agreement, which strengthens Premier Abadi, the common goal of bringing down the Islamic state.

Baghdad (AsiaNews) - "The oil deal between Baghdad and Erbil is a very positive sign", which paves the way for "a better future relationship between the federal authorities and the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG)"; a thaw in relations, after a decade of conflicts and clashes on the management of oil and revenues linked to it.  Moreover, it "will reflect positively in all areas: security, the economy, politics and stability in Iraq."

Thi is how Christian MP Yonadam Kanna, leader of the Assyrian Democratic Movement, a member of the Parliamentary Committee on Labour and Social Affairs comments to AsiaNews, on the recently announced agreement. The deal between the Iraqi central government and the heads of the KRG, in the north of the country, puts an end to the age-old dispute over oil exports and the new budget.

The announcement was made by the Iraqi Finance Minister Hoshyar Zebari in Baghdad, who specified that the Kurdish government will send 550 thousand barrels of crude oil per day (250 thousand from wells around Erbil and other 300 thousand from Kirkuk) to the Iraqi Ministry of Oil; in return, the Kurds will receive a monthly fee of 17% of the national budget for their region, as per the Constitution. This means up to a billion extra dollars, to support the Peshmerga fighters engaged in the battle against the militias of the Islamic State.

The dispute over oil between Baghdad and Erbil has represented a threat to the national unity government of the new prime minister Haider al-Abadi, a coalition of several political ethnic and religious factions draw from the landscape of Iraq. In the past even the Chaldean Patriarch Mar Louis Raphael I Sako had intervened in the dispute, pointing the finger at politicians "only interested in oil," while the country "slides towards civil war."

The new government, after years of sectarian divisions and struggles under former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, has to face the IS terrorists, who conquered large parts of the north and west. Minister Zebari has described the agreement as a success for both sides, because it ensures greater "stability" and contributes to the resources available to the Iraqi government, in trouble "over the collapse in prices" of crude oil.

Analysts and international policy experts argue that the agreement indicates that the country, engaged in a bitter war with the Islamists, intends to remain united. It is a comforting signal for the new central government, which has been able to attract the support of the Kurdish minority. In return, Erbil will have access to the dollars needed to support their troops - in wages and arms - and defend the territories (and oil wells) from the advance of the IS. Premier Abadi, Shia, still faces the task - far harder - of winning the support of the Sunni Arab minority, relegated to the margins by the former Prime Minister al-Maliki. Between the two sides a clean fracture was created, which favored the advance of Islamist militias, sometimes welcomed with enthusiasm by the Sunnis in the west.

Optimism for the prospects of the new government was also expressed by the Christian MP, who hopes that the executive "is headed in the right direction, although it is always subject to threats and pressures from the Islamic state." However, Yonadam Kanna adds, it is a "positive step in the fight against terrorism and in ensuring greater stability to Iraq." And also in terms of the economy, Premier Abadi "has the necessary experience and expertise ", although the picture at present is "very difficult, having said that, we remain confident he can achieve his goals."

 

• IRAQ
• Kurdistan
• oil
• Islamic
• State
• crude
• prices
• stability
• terrorism
• democracy
• peshmerga