Tuesday, June 26, 2007
KRG Prime Minister may not run another term
Kurdistan, Politics
(KurdishMedia) - Nechirvan Barzani, the KRG Prime Minister, stated that he may not stay in his post as the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Prime Minister. Mr Barzani was responding to the questions by journalists during a press conference in Arbil, the capital of southern Kurdistan, on Monday. Mr Barzani stated that the post of the prime minister would go to an individual from the PUK, led by Jalal Talabani, from next year. However, Mr Barzani did not elaborate on his next post or whether he would stay in the administration or not.
Labels: KRG, Nechirvan Barzani, prime minister, PUK
Monday, June 04, 2007
Talabani and Barzani will not accept postponement on Kirkuk
Kurdistan
(VOI) - Kurdish leaders Jalal Talabani and Massoud Barzani affirmed that they would not accept postponement of the application of article 140 of Iraq's constitution, which deals with the issue of Kirkuk. "We are determined to have article 140, pertaining to the normalization of the situation in Kirkuk, applied," Talabani, Iraq's president, said during a press conference held with Iraqi Kurdistan Region's president, Massoud Barzani, at the resort of Dukan.
The two Kurdish leaders had earlier on Sunday met to discuss ways of unifying their positions on the enforcement of article 140. The several hours' meeting was attended by Nechirvan Barzani, the prime minister of the Iraqi Kurdistan region, Deputy Premier Barham Saleh, as well as a number of members of Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). Kurds claim that the demographic distribution of Kirkuk's population was considerably changed after the 1980s, following attempts by the former regime to encourage Iraqi Arabs to flock to the oil-rich city in a bid to change its demographic makeup in favor of Arabs.
Labels: Article 140, Barham Saleh, Jalal Talabani, Kirkuk, Massoud Barzani, Nechirvan Barzani
Friday, May 25, 2007
Kurdish delegation heads to Baghdad for meeting on draft oil law
Politics
(Kurdish Globe) - KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani, accompanied by the ministers of finance and natural resources, headed the delegation to Baghdad, intent on settling arguments regarding the Iraq draft oil law. Iraqi and Kurdish lawmakers have not been able to settle disputes on how to distribute the country's oil wealth or the KRG's right to sign contracts with international oil and gas firms.
Barzani who met with Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki Monday and described the environment as "friendly", expressed Erbil's support for the Maliki administration. He also announced the formation of a common committee to settle the disputes. General Jabar Yawar, spokesman of the Kurdistan forces who accompanies PM Barzani, said the meeting was "positive" but refrained from disclosing any details. Other constitutional issues up for discussion include possible amendments to the Iraqi constitution as well as the implementation of Article 140 in Kirkuk and other disputed areas.
The discussion comes at a time when the Norwegian company DNO announced its first-quarter activities of 2007. DNO began exploring for oil in Tawke, near Zakho town, nearly two years ago under an agreement with the KRG. The company stated on May 16 that Tawke oil is currently ready to be transported to market and that two new drilling projects completed at Tawke now bring the total to five.
"We are pleased with our achievements of developing Tawke into a field ready to produce," said Helge Eide, DNO managing director. "This is also testament to the commitment of the KRG and DNO to develop long-term and sustainable values from their joint projects."
Barzani who met with Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki Monday and described the environment as "friendly", expressed Erbil's support for the Maliki administration. He also announced the formation of a common committee to settle the disputes. General Jabar Yawar, spokesman of the Kurdistan forces who accompanies PM Barzani, said the meeting was "positive" but refrained from disclosing any details. Other constitutional issues up for discussion include possible amendments to the Iraqi constitution as well as the implementation of Article 140 in Kirkuk and other disputed areas.
The discussion comes at a time when the Norwegian company DNO announced its first-quarter activities of 2007. DNO began exploring for oil in Tawke, near Zakho town, nearly two years ago under an agreement with the KRG. The company stated on May 16 that Tawke oil is currently ready to be transported to market and that two new drilling projects completed at Tawke now bring the total to five.
"We are pleased with our achievements of developing Tawke into a field ready to produce," said Helge Eide, DNO managing director. "This is also testament to the commitment of the KRG and DNO to develop long-term and sustainable values from their joint projects."
Labels: Article 140, Baghdad, DNO, draft oil law, Helge Eide, Iraqi constitution, KRG, Nechirvan Barzani, Tawke
Thursday, May 03, 2007
KRG wants peaceful resolution to Kirkuk issue
Politics
(Kurdish Globe) - Kurdistan Region's Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani said that his government wants to retain Kirkuk peacefully, and urged Turkey to respect "the will of the Iraqi people," warning of the consequences of military action by the Turkish army inside Kurdistan Region's territory. While speaking to the pan-Arab al-Sharaq al-Awsat newspaper, Prime Minister Barzani said, "We reiterate that Kirkuk is an Iraqi city with a Kurdistani identity and we have a roadmap to resolve this issue," referring to Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution.
"Our slogan is that we want to rectify what has been forcefully done to Kirkuk and return Kirkuk to its natural position according to the Iraqi constitution and law in a peaceful way," said Barzani in an interview that was published last saturday.
Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution has laid out three major steps to resolve the dispute over the fate of Kirkuk. The first step is the return of Kurdish and Turkoman refugees to Kirkuk and the compensation of Arab settlers, brought to the city by Saddam Hussein's regime, who go back to their original areas in the southern and central parts of the country. The other two steps include a census to determine the population of the oil-rich province of Kirkuk to be followed by a referendum scheduled for the end of this year on whether Kirkuk should be part of Kurdistan or not.
Asked if his government would resort to military force to retain Kirkuk should the constitutional process fail, Barzani responded, "We don't want to and don't like to discuss this issue in this way. The important thing here is that there is a problem, and if one of the parties thinks that by taking the benefit of time and delaying the steps (of resolving the issue) the problem will be forgotten, then it is wrong. Any delay in resolving that issue will further deepen it and delaying it for any single day will further complicate the matter."
"Our slogan is that we want to rectify what has been forcefully done to Kirkuk and return Kirkuk to its natural position according to the Iraqi constitution and law in a peaceful way," said Barzani in an interview that was published last saturday.
Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution has laid out three major steps to resolve the dispute over the fate of Kirkuk. The first step is the return of Kurdish and Turkoman refugees to Kirkuk and the compensation of Arab settlers, brought to the city by Saddam Hussein's regime, who go back to their original areas in the southern and central parts of the country. The other two steps include a census to determine the population of the oil-rich province of Kirkuk to be followed by a referendum scheduled for the end of this year on whether Kirkuk should be part of Kurdistan or not.
Asked if his government would resort to military force to retain Kirkuk should the constitutional process fail, Barzani responded, "We don't want to and don't like to discuss this issue in this way. The important thing here is that there is a problem, and if one of the parties thinks that by taking the benefit of time and delaying the steps (of resolving the issue) the problem will be forgotten, then it is wrong. Any delay in resolving that issue will further deepen it and delaying it for any single day will further complicate the matter."
Labels: Article 140, Kirkuk, KRG, Nechirvan Barzani, Turkey
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Iraqi, Kurdish officials to meet on draft oil law
Oil
(Reuters) - Officials from Iraq's central government and the Kurdistan region will meet this week to iron out last-minute disputes over a draft oil law that will decide control of the world's third largest oil reserves. Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani said last week the law would be ready for submission this week to parliament, and he expected lawmakers to make no major amendments.
But Kurdish energy officials have called the draft's annexes unconstitutional, raising the prospect of more disagreements and delays that dogged the lengthy law-writing process. Ashti Hawrami, minister of natural resources in the autonomous Kurdistan region, told Reuters his objections centered on annexes of the law that would wrest oilfields from regional governments and place them under a new state-oil company.
Nechirvan Barzani, the Kurdish regional prime minister, said Kurds wanted to include a separate law on oil revenue management that would set up a Kurdish fund as part of a "package deal" with the oil law. "The oil draft law and the oil revenues distribution law should be passed together in parliament. Without the revenues law the oil draft law would be incomplete, " Barzani told Reuters. "The oil revenues should be deposited in a special account and the share of the Kurdish region must be defined clearly and we have no objection if this account is run by Iraq or an international committee".
The central government wants revenues put in a central account and distributed according to Iraq's population. Shahristani, who has said he will listen to the Kurdish government's opinions this week, said in January that the national oil company will be given control of the country's most prized oilfields, and fields on their periphery.
Hawrami said draft annexes would give the state oil company control of an unacceptably high 80 percent of Iraq's oil reserves. He said an Iraq National Oil Company (INOC) should maintain control of producing fields, but did not have the expertise or capital for discovered but undeveloped fields. The annexes under dispute include: current productive oil fields; discovered and undeveloped oil fields; discovered and undeveloped oil fields; and expeditionary areas.
But Kurdish energy officials have called the draft's annexes unconstitutional, raising the prospect of more disagreements and delays that dogged the lengthy law-writing process. Ashti Hawrami, minister of natural resources in the autonomous Kurdistan region, told Reuters his objections centered on annexes of the law that would wrest oilfields from regional governments and place them under a new state-oil company.
Nechirvan Barzani, the Kurdish regional prime minister, said Kurds wanted to include a separate law on oil revenue management that would set up a Kurdish fund as part of a "package deal" with the oil law. "The oil draft law and the oil revenues distribution law should be passed together in parliament. Without the revenues law the oil draft law would be incomplete, " Barzani told Reuters. "The oil revenues should be deposited in a special account and the share of the Kurdish region must be defined clearly and we have no objection if this account is run by Iraq or an international committee".
The central government wants revenues put in a central account and distributed according to Iraq's population. Shahristani, who has said he will listen to the Kurdish government's opinions this week, said in January that the national oil company will be given control of the country's most prized oilfields, and fields on their periphery.
Hawrami said draft annexes would give the state oil company control of an unacceptably high 80 percent of Iraq's oil reserves. He said an Iraq National Oil Company (INOC) should maintain control of producing fields, but did not have the expertise or capital for discovered but undeveloped fields. The annexes under dispute include: current productive oil fields; discovered and undeveloped oil fields; discovered and undeveloped oil fields; and expeditionary areas.
Labels: Ashti Hawrami, draft oil law, Hussain al-Shahristani, INOC, Iraq National Oil Co., Kurdistan, Nechirvan Barzani
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Kurdistan's prime minister to visit Iran
Kurdistan, Iran
(RFE/RL) - Kurdistan regional Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani announced on April 19 that he will visit Iran in the coming days to discuss the issue of terrorists crossing the Iranian border into the semi-autonomous Kurdish region, "Ibril Peyamner" reported. "We have had a thorough follow-up on the recent failed terrorist attack against a border point in Pinjwin," east of Al-Sulaymaniyah, Barzani said. "We take those events very seriously because they pose a threat to the security and stability of our region." Kurdish officials have indicated that the Iraqi Kurdistan-Iranian border region has been used as an entry point by the terrorist group Ansar Al-Islam to infiltrate Iraq and carry out attacks.
Labels: Ansar al-Islam, border, Iran, Kurdistan, Nechirvan Barzani
