Politics

Deputy Speaker Hawrami calls top Iraqi court ruling unconstitutional in meeting with French Consul General

"Dr. Hawrami said that the court's decision is unconstitutional, is against Iraq's federal system and is not impartial."

Wladimir van Wilgenburg 2022/03/01 20:31

Kurdistan Parliament Deputy Speaker Dr. Hemin Hawrami met with France’s Consul General Olivier Decottignies on Tuesday, Mar. 1, 2022 (Photo: Kurdistan Parliament).

Kurdistan Hemin Hawrami Oil and Gas Kurdistan Parliament France Olivier Decottignies

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Kurdistan Parliament Deputy Speaker Dr. Hemin Hawrami told France's Consul General Olivier Decottignies that the Iraqi Federal Supreme Court's Feb. 15 ruling on its oil and gas sector is unconstitutional during a meeting on Tuesday.

Hawrami and Decottignies also discussed the current political situation in Kurdistan Region, Iraq, and the wider region, during their meeting.

"Dr. Hawrami said that the court's decision is unconstitutional, is against Iraq's federal system and is not impartial," read the Kurdistan Parliament's press release on the meeting. "Kurdistan Region will defend its constitutional rights."

Deputy Speaker Hawrami also referred to Monday's meeting of Kurdistan Region's four presidencies (the presidencies of the Kurdistan Region, Parliament, Council of Ministers, and the Judicial Council) to discuss the Iraqi Federal Supreme Court's recent ruling on Kurdistan Region's Oil and Gas Law (Law No. 22 of 2007). After the meeting, they issued six points that outlined why the court's ruling was unconstitutional.

During the meeting, the four presidencies said that "the decision of the Federal Supreme Court is unacceptable, and that the Kurdistan Region will continue to exercise its constitutional rights and will not give up in any way its constitutional rights and entitlements, and will take all legal and constitutional measures in order to protect those rights."

In its ruling, the top Iraqi court said the KRG is obligated to "hand over all oil production from oil fields in the Kurdistan Region and other areas from which the KRG's Ministry of Natural Resources extracted oil" to the federal government.

Sierwan Najmaldin Karim, the president of the Washington Kurdish Institute, previously told Kurdistan 24 that the ruling was "one of many times that Baghdad has ignored the constitutional rights of the Kurds."