Kurds end negotiations with Baghdad, discuss withd
Kurds end negotiations with Baghdad, discuss withdrawal from government
15/09/2011 09:47
Baghdad, Sep. 15 (AKnews) - The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) puts negotiations with the federal government in Baghdad on hold until prior agreements are implemented. A delegation under chairmanship of Prime Minister Barham Saleh was originally supposed to visit Baghdad to discuss current tensions between the KRG and Baghdad.
The Kurds complain that agreements made before the current Iraqi government was formed are still not implemented.
"If the Kurds do not see that the other party is serious about these agreements, then there is no point for the visit of our delegation", said Muayyid Tayyib, spokesman for the Kurdistan Blocs Coalition (KBC), the coalition of Kurdish parties in the Iraqi parliament.
"We will take further actions in case the political parties continue to ignore the implementation of the agreements", Tayyib said after a meeting of Kurdish politicians in Erbil yesterday, headed by Kurdistan Region's president Massoud Barzani.
Tensions rose between Baghdad and the Kurdish government in Erbil after the KRG rejected the new law for the exploitation of oil and gas in the country.
The Kurds believe the new law would allow the federal government to exploit the country's oil wealth at the expense of the Kurdish Region. They also argue that the Ministers Council did not follow the legal process when it approved the law.
Fatih Dargai, Member of Parliament from the Kurdistan Islamic Group, who attended the meeting in Erbil, said, "The politicians discussed the withdrawal of the KBC from the Iraqi government."
It is the first time that the Kurds openly talk about withdrawing from the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
The Kurds have 57 seats in the Iraqi parliament, 47 of them are organized in the KBC. The Kurds run four ministries in Maliki's government, in addition to the deputy prime minister post.
However, the Kurds assured to be bound by previous agreements between the political parties on which the Iraqi government was formed.
Reported by Haider Ibrahim
RN/CU/AKnews