ARBIL, Southern Kurdistan - Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has demanded
Baghdad's oil minister be sacked, following his remarks that oil contracts
signed by the regional government are "illegal."
The call by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) late Thursday deals
another blow to attempts by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to forge a national
consensus on the controversial issue of dividing up the spoils of Iraq's vast
oil reserves.
Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani should quit rather than "interfere in the
internal affairs" of the Kurdish region, KRG spokesman Khalid Saleh told
reporters in Arbil.
Shahristani at a recent meeting of OPEC in Vienna said that all oil contracts
signed in Iraq's Kurdish region are "illegal" as a controversial oil law is yet
to be passed in the parliament.
The regional government has signed contracts with several global oil companies
to explore crude oil in its region, which houses the bulk of the country's oil
reserves.
Kurdish officials say they will honour the contracts, and also claim to have
reached an agreement with Baghdad whereby it will receive 17 percent of the
country's oil revenues.
In a separate statement, the KRG said the minister was "strongly advised to
stay out of issues over which he has no authority."
"But once again he has repeated his false mantra of 'it is illegal'.
Unfortunately this has been his way of dealing with the legitimate concerns of
the hard working oil union members in the south, with the achievements of the
KRG or with any other organisation that he does not like."
The statement said the minister must focus on preventing "illegal oil
smuggling under his watch, which is crippling the Iraqi economy."
Saleh said if Shahristani failed in this he should resign and allow some other
"person more qualified than him" to do his job.
The regional government also accused the minister of favouring contracts
signed with companies who operated during the former regime of Saddam Hussein.
"The answer is to get on with the agreed draft oil law and present it without
changes to the parliament. That way we will all get on with the task of
developing the oil industry for the benefit of the people," the KRG said.
Iraq's oil infrastructure has been hit by decades of under-investment as a
result of successive Gulf wars, 13 years of UN sanctions and the rampant
insecurity that followed the US-led invasion in 2003.
Washington regards passage of the controversial oil legislation as key to
efforts at national reconciliation in the country which is wracked by an
insurgency and sectarian violence.
US President George W. Bush in his televised address to the nation late
Thursday bluntly acknowledged he was not satisfied with the pace of Iraqi
political reforms that Washington views as critical to forging national unity.
"The government has not met its own legislative benchmarks," said Bush, who
directed a message to Iraq's people that "you must demand that your leaders make
the tough choices needed to achieve reconciliation."
The draft oil and gas law provides for earnings to be shared equally between
Iraq's 18 provinces in a bid to allay Sunni fears they will be monopolised by
Kurdish and Shiite provinces which contain the oilfields.
But it also opens up Iraq's long state-controlled hydrocarbons sector to
foreign involvement.
The draft law was passed by Maliki's cabinet in July but faces tough passage
in the 275-seat legislature, where the Kurdish bloc has 53 seats.
