Kurdish government tells Baghdad to back off on oil sales

Kurdish government tells Baghdad to back off on oil sales
by Daniel J. Graeber
Erbil, Iraq (UPI) Jun 27, 2013

Kurdish government makes misleading claims on oil, Baghdad says
Baghdad (UPI) Jun 30, 2013 - Statements on oil exports from the semiautonomous Kurdish government were misleading, the Iraqi Oil Ministry said.

Last week, the Kurdish Ministry of Natural Resources said a federal court ruled against the government in a case filed from Baghdad against Kurdish oil exports from Turkey.

A statement Saturday from the Kurdistan Regional Government said a written request was sent to Baghdad calling on the federal government to stop interfering in its oil exports.

A separate statement from the Iraqi Oil Ministry said their Kurdish counterparts were making "incorrect and misleading" claims about the case.

"The provincial government is still exporting oil illegally from Iraq, which is a breach on the constitution," the ministry said Saturday.

Both sides are at odds over who controls what aspects of the oil sector. The Kurdish government has confirmed at least one sale of oil, made last week to Israel. The U.S. government has sided with Baghdad on the issue, saying Iraqi oil can be sold only with Baghdad's explicit consent.

Potential buyers have avoided Kurdish oil because of the export row, Baghdad says. Statements from Erbil, the Kurdish capital, made about the rights of the semiautonomous government are part of a public deception campaign, the Iraqi Oil Ministry said.

The federal government in Baghdad should give up its effort to prevent oil exports from the Kurdish region of Iraq, the semiautonomous government said Friday.

The Kurdish Ministry of Natural Resources said a federal court ruled against the government in a case filed from Baghdad against Kurdish oil exports from Turkey.

The court, the ministry said, ruled Baghdad's efforts to prevent Kurdish oil exports lacked legal justification.

"Now we call upon the federal Oil Ministry, State Organization for Marketing of Oil and all their helpers to abandon their illegal and unconstitutional interventions to prevent oil exports from the Kurdistan Region," the ministry said Friday.

The federal Oil Ministry issued a statement Monday denouncing the sale of Kurdish oil to Israel. It said such exports were illegal unless the Kurdish government had explicit approval from the ministry and the federal government.

The U.S. government backed Baghdad's position earlier this week. U.S. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said any oil export or sale "has to happen with the appropriate approval of the federal Iraqi government."

The Kurdish government has sent two shipments of oil from the Turkish sea port of Ceyhan so far this year.

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