Risk Management Report: Iraqi Kurdistan
Risk Management
Issue 984
- 08 Jan 2015
| 1 minute read
POLITICS: Disagreements between the autonomous Kurdish region and
Baghdad have been a source of major tensions in recent years. The 2005
constitution stipulated that Iraqi Kurdistan, which has an identity very distinct
from Iraq, is a federal entity recognised by Iraq and the United Nations, and
the 2010 Erbil agreement with Baghdad outlined how power would be shared.
But the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has protested their lack of
implementation, and relations with Baghdad have been highly acrimonious.
Oil has been at the centre of the dispute, with Baghdad furious that Erbil
signed production-sharing agreements with international oil companies
(IOCs) without its say-so, and Kurdistan refusing to export its oil through the
central State Oil Marketing Organisation (SOMO). The Kurds accused former
prime minister Nouri Al-Maliki of breaching the constitution by assuming too
many powers, and have threatened to hold a referendum on independence.
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