IRAQ DEPUTY NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR FEARS SPLIT

[BETTYBOOP]

I am posting this in rumors because i can not find the link to post it elsewhere. Having just read the news on my phone, reuters (london) report that the deputy national security advisor in Iraq has spoken at a national conference in Iraq that there is fears the kurdish region will split from Iraq if the oil exports to turkey continue. It is reported that a gas pipeline at kirkuk is to be adapted to allow 3000,000 barrels per day to be piped to turkey. They continue to argue that the kurdish regional government can do this without Bagdads say so because it is included in the constitution.

Possibly further delays......?

[dinarbeleiver]

Certainly hope not bettyboop - I think there is going to be a lot of misdirection and bad news coming from Iraq this year however I think it will be to hide their true intentions of what they are about to do with the currency

[gymrat76541]

Problems are coming soon for Iraq. The Kurds will seek independence sooner or later and it is just a matter of time. The Kurds seek to create their own country out of parts of Iraq, Turkey, and Iran. They are making huge amounts of money from the sale of oil which they will turn into arms with which to fight and the only question to be answered is when? I am hoping that we see an RV BEFORE all this hits the fan.

[BETTYBOOP]

I agree with you both. I am also hoping for an R. V. before it all goes pear shaped.

[Jrose]

I think this was the article you are referring to BETTYBOOP.  The link to follow below.

 

LONDON, March 19 (Reuters) - Rising oil trade between Iraqi Kurdistan and Turkey threatens to split Iraq in two, a senior Iraqi official said, as the autonomous region ignores Baghdad's threats of tough action against what it terms illegal exports.

Oil lies at the heart of a long-running feud between the central government and the autonomous Kurdistan region. Baghdad says it alone has the authority to control exports and sign contracts, while the Kurds say their right to do so is enshrined in Iraq's federal constitution.

"If oil from Kurdistan goes through Turkey directly, that will be like dividing Iraq. This is our big concern," Iraq's Deputy National Security Adviser Safa al-Sheikh Hussein said on the sidelines of an Iraq conference.

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) started on the path towards economic independence early this year by exporting small volumes of crude oil by truck to Turkey.

The move further angered Baghdad, which threatened action against the region and foreign oil companies working there to stop the exports, which it says are illegal.

KRG crude used to be shipped to world markets through a Baghdad-controlled pipeline running from Kirkuk to the Turkish port of Ceyhan, but exports via that channel dried up in December due to a payment row with Baghdad.

The northern region is now pushing ahead with plans to build its own oil export pipeline to Turkey, despite objections from the United States, which fears the project could lead to the break-up of Iraq.

KRG Energy Minister Ashti Hawrami has said a gas pipeline now being laid can be converted to ship up to 300,000 barrels per day of crude by June.

"Kurdistan is almost independent and they want more gains now," said Hussein, deputy of the National Security Council, created in 2004 as a forum for security decision-making. "They are a little over-confident and overly ambitious."

 

TURKEY LINKS

For its part, energy-hungry Turkey has increasingly courted Iraqi Kurds as relations with the Shi'ite-led central government in Baghdad have soured and it now ranks as a major trading partner for the autonomous region.

A broad energy partnership between Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan ranging from exploration to export has been in the works since last year.

Though steadily developing more energy autonomy, the region still relies on the central government for a share of the national budget from oil revenues.

"There's a lot of tension with the Kurds," said Hussein. "I don't think it can be resolved this year, but maybe we can contain it."

Kurdistan's exploration contracts with oil majors like Exxon Mobil and Chevron are a further source of friction that have prompted Baghdad repeatedly to warn companies they risk losing their assets in the south of the country.

Exxon has been weighing whether to sell out of the giant, southern West Qurna-1 oilfield, but industry sources say Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki offered the company substantially improved terms in January to keep it at the $50 billion project.

Since then, Iraqi and Kurdish officials have both suggested Exxon will side with them.

Hussein said that if Exxon were to start to drill in territories disputed with Kurdistan, "there will be a legal response ... to end all (of Exxon's) work in the rest of Iraq."

"We are determined to resolve our problems peacefully, but this can influence the integrity of Iraq," he said.

Officials from Exxon and Iraqi Kurdistan last month visited the Qara Hansher oil exploration block that lies in disputed territories where both regions claim jurisdiction and discussed building a camp there.

And industry sources said the U.S. major has drilled three water wells at the al-Qush block, also in the disputed zone, in preparation to start drilling by early June.

The oil dispute has been accompanied by an increase in military tension between the two regions.

Last year, Iraqi national army and Kurdish Peshmerga forces both sent troops to reinforce their rival positions around towns dotted along the disputed territories, including the sensitive ethnically mixed town of Kirkuk.

"Neither side wants to end this militarily," said Hussein, a former Brigadier General in Iraq's Air Force.

 

Link: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/03/19/iraq-kurdistan-energy-idUKL6N0CBBPE20130319

[Luigi1]

To make matters worse...Maliki promised to include payments due the kurds for the oil companies to get the budget done. Maliki again reniged on his word as he has done in the past.

 

There may be no option but to split up Iraq into 3 republics thanks to Maliki. This could weaken or lessen the fullest potential of the IQD RV rising to it's greatest value. There is strength in numbers. It would be best to keep Iraq whole if they can just find a way to get rid of Maliki.

[MyLadiesDaddy]

To make matters worse...Maliki promised to include payments due the kurds for the oil companies to get the budget done. Maliki again reniged on his word as he has done in the past. There may be no option but to split up Iraq into 3 republics thanks to Maliki. This could weaken or lessen the fullest potential of the IQD RV rising to it's greatest value. There is strength in numbers. It would be best to keep Iraq whole if they can just find a way to get rid of Maliki.

Can you show me the article that says Maliki went back on his words?

[Jrose]

LadyGrace, I think the article Luigi is referring to is below

Tuesday, December 21st 2010

Maliki signed to implement article 140 (HCL) in two years

Erbil, Dec. 21 (AKnews) – Kurdistan Block Coalition (KBC) and National coalition agreement says Iraq’s PM Nuri Maliki will implement article 140 in a two-year time period.

Maliki has signed on the agreement which details implementation of all the details of the Article, said KBC member, Fatih Daraghayee.

Maliki did not talk about te Article in detail in his statement in Parliament but that will not affect the agreement, he noted.

“The agreement is a written one and if Maliki would not implement it, then the federal court would interfere and solve it.”

Article 140 sets a roadmap to resolve territorial disputes between Kurds and other ethnic groups in the country.

The first stage of the implementation of the article is the demographic restoration of the areas under dispute which were altered demographically by the ‘Arabization’ policies of the former regime.

Part of the agreement, which was signed on Monday, is the implementation of the agenda of the KBC’s 19 point initiative, another KCL member Shwan M. Taha said.

Kurds agreed to participate in the Iraqi new cabinet basing on the implementation of the initiative, he noted.

Iraqi parliament entrusted Maliki news cabinet in Tuesday’s session.

Reported by Saman Ali

GS AKnews

Link: http://www.aknews.co...knews/4/204359

[MyLadiesDaddy]

Thks for the article. But it looks to me that it says HCL was passed.

How can Maliki be accused of going back on it?

So it takes two years, what else is new with Iraq?

There lucky it is only two. Lol