KurdistanObserver.com
Kurdish PM to Visit Baghdad Soon – MP
Baghdad, Feb 6, (VOI)- A prominent member in the Kurdistan Coalition (KC) said
on Wednesday that a high-level Kurdish delegation under Prime Minister Nechirvan
Barzani will arrive in Baghdad in the coming two days.
"The delegation will include a number of Kurdish ministers and
members of the political bureau of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and
the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) to discuss some technical issues with the
central government," Mahmoud Othman told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq (VOI).
He ruled out discussing Kurdistan's share in the 2008 budget,
asserting that "this issue will be discussed in the parliament."
"The visit aims to solve some pending issues and to continue talks Barzani held
with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki a month ago," the MP noted Nechirvan Barzani
had talks with the central government in Baghdad in mid-December 2007 to discuss
outstanding issues, including oil contracts, but reached no concrete results.
"The delegation will discuss also Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution and oil
contracts signed with some foreign companies as well as oil and gas draft law,"
Othman explained.
The government of autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan signed a contract with a global oil
consortium led by South Korea's national oil corporation KNOC, by virtue of
which the latter received a concession to prospect for oil in northern Iraq.
According to KNOC sources, South Korea imported 42 million barrels of oil from
Iraq in November 2007, three times the amount it imported from Iraq in a whole
year in 2006.
Iraq is South Korea's largest oil supplier.
The government of Iraqi Kurdistan had signed 15 contracts to take part in oil
production with 20 foreign companies despite the central government's objection
and ahead of the Iraqi parliament's final endorsement on the new oil draft law.
