“Now Baghdad is really the issue because Turkey has announced that it is ready and willing to accept” resuming exports, Barzani told Rudaw’s Alla Shally during a press conference in Paris on Friday.
Export of Kurdistan Region’s oil through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline has been halted since March 23 when a Paris-based arbitration court ruled in favor of Baghdad against Ankara, saying Turkey had breached a 1973 agreement by allowing Erbil to begin independent oil exports in 2014.
Erbil and Baghdad have had multiple rounds of talks about resuming the exports and Barzani said there are still “some measures” that they need to agree on, including contracts the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has signed with oil companies.
He said that Iraq treats oil companies operating in federally-controlled areas as service providers while the KRG treats them as “partners.”
“For example, in the budget law, they [Iraq] have set the [production] fee per oil barrel from the Kurdistan Region at six dollars, which is very low. This has to be increased because they have set the fee [for their oil companies] at a higher amount,” he said.
The Association of the Petroleum Industry of Kurdistan (APIKUR) said last month that Baghdad and Erbil have lost seven billion dollars since March due to the export halt. Safeen Dizayee, head of the KRG’s Department of Foreign Relations, said in September the loss was $6 billion.
Barzani said on Friday that the halt has cost Iraq five billion dollars.
“This has caused loss to all Iraq, not only the Kurdistan Region,” he said.
Control over oil exports and revenues has long been a source of friction between Erbil and Baghdad. Barzani said the problem now is technical rather than political.
“This technical issue should be resolved with Baghdad. To this point, I cannot say the issue, Baghdad’s prevention of the flow of oil, is political. I believe that the issue is a technical one and it requires us to find a suitable solution for it between the Kurdistan Region and Baghdad,” he said.
Prior to the halt, about 400,000 barrels of oil were being exported daily by Erbil through the pipeline that runs to the Turkish port of Ceyhan, in addition to some 75,000 barrels from Kirkuk oil fields controlled by the Iraqi government.
According to the highly-contentious Iraqi federal budget passed in June, the KRG is obliged to sell 400,000 barrels of crude oil through Iraq’s national oil marketing body, alternatively Baghdad would use Kurdish oil domestically.
The loss in oil revenues has worsened the financial situation and left the KRG unable to pay its public sector without assistance from Baghdad. The two governments, however, cannot agree on the Kurdistan Region’s financial entitlements.
Barzani said that they have acted “transparently” with Baghdad in this regard. “All data has been discussed with Baghdad in a well-organized way. Baghdad has no excuses not to send the salaries of the civil servants of the Kurdistan Region.”
“We have been committed to all agreements and the Kurdistan Region expects Baghdad to resolve this issue as soon as possible,” he said, adding that the fate of the Region’s salaries should no longer be the subject of news for media outlets.
Federal employees are now receiving their salaries for November, but the KRG has said it will hand out August salaries next week.
Meeting with Macron
President Barzani is in Paris. He arrived on Thursday and was welcomed by French President Emmanuel Macron at Elysee Palace on Friday.
“I had a good meeting with President Macron. We discussed a number of issues, including bolstering the relations of Iraq and the Kurdistan Region with France,” Barzani told reporters.
“As you know, France has a strategic agreement with Iraq. During this meeting, we reiterated that both sides should be committed to it as soon as possible,” he added. “France has had a significant role. France has been a main supporter of Iraq politically and militarily and during the fight against ISIS [Islamic State].”
“We also talked about Erbil-Baghdad ties during the meeting, and we emphasized that the ongoing issues should be resolved through dialogue,” Barzani noted.
The two leaders “engaged in a comprehensive dialogue, covering the political, security, and economic situation in Iraq, as well as the latest developments in the region. They underscored the necessity of strengthening the ties between France and both Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, in line with the strategic agreement between Iraq and France,” according to a statement from the Kurdistan Region Presidency.
The close relationship between Kurds and France goes back to the 1980s. Danielle Mitterrand, first lady of France from 1981 to 1995, advocated for Kurds suffering under the regime of Saddam Hussein and was instrumental in securing the no-fly zone that allowed the Kurdistan Region to develop its current autonomy. She was affectionately known as the “Mother of Kurds” and inaugurated the first Kurdish parliament in 1992.
France was one of the first countries to open a consulate in the Kurdish capital of Erbil after the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime in 2003 and played a critical role in helping Kurds both in Iraq and in Syria in the war against ISIS.
When Kurds in the Kurdistan Region held an independence referendum in 2017, Baghdad imposed a flight ban on the Region for months. A historic visit by Barzani, then prime minister of the KRG, to France helped reconnect the Kurdistan Region to the world.
Hamas-Israel war
President Barzani said that the Hamas-Israel conflict has an impact on the whole region, adding that he and Macron agreed that humanitarian aid should be sent to Gaza as soon as possible. “We believe that those people who have been held captive by Hamas should be released,” he added.
According to the Palestinian health ministry, over 9,000 people have been killed in Gaza by Israeli airstrikes since the start of the war on October 7 following an attack by Hamas on Israel. There are fears that the tensions could spill over to other parts of the Middle East.
Barzani said that preparations should be made to find a “strategic solution” to the Palestine-Israel issue.
“We believe that the right solution is the creation of two states. This is a strategic solution that we believe is the only solution as everyone has understood that war does not resolve the issue which has existed for a long time,” he stated.
The two-state solution is a proposal that has been discussed for decades and has gained renewed traction since the start of the latest war, with Western leaders calling for its implementation.
Asked if the Hamas-Israel tensions will have a negative impact on the status of the Kurdistan Region, Barzani replied, “There is no threat on the status of Kurdistan as an entity.”
A pro-Iran group, Islamic Resistance in Iraq, has carried out tens of drone and rocket attacks against United States troops in Iraq and Syria in retaliation for Washington's support for Israel.
Barzani said that these attacks against US troops in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region “will never serve Iraq or the Kurdistan Region. We believe that everything should be done to prevent Iraq from being dragged into these issues.”
