Iraq/Kurdistan: Baghdad Oil Deal With Kurds 'In Danger' of Falling Apart, Lawmaker Warns


Feb 6, 2015 | Assyrian International News Agency
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An important agreement between Baghdad and Erbil that resolved long-standing disputes over the budget and oil exports is in danger of falling apart, the deputy speaker of Kurdistan's parliament warned.

"External actors are meddling in the agreement in order to make it fail," Jafar Ibrahim Aamenki told Rudaw, without elaborating on who these were.

"I am afraid it will not survive," he said about the agreement, which was finalized between the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the central government in Baghdad in late December.

"External actors are not letting Iraq stabilize. The Baghdad-Erbil agreement is in danger," said Aamenki, the first Kurdish official to voice such a warning.

The deal, which ended months of deadlock between the two sides, resolved the two biggest hurdles of Kurdish crude exports and payments from the national budget to the autonomous Kurdistan government.