Kurdistan Region Presidency denies requesting UN Security Council mediation on Erbil-Baghdad issues 

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The media office of the Kurdistan Region Presidency announced on Sunday that it categorically denies the “fabricated” news that President Nechirvan Barzani asked the United Nations Security Council to mediate between Erbil and Baghdad on outstanding issues. 

The media office said that it never issued a statement concerning a “request” by President Barzani to the UNSC to mediate between the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the Government of Iraq, read the presidency statement. 

The news is “totally false and fabricated,” it added. 

In a speech addressing the security consortium on Thursday, the head of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, expressed her disappointment over the failure to resolve outstanding issues between Erbil and Baghdad. 

“The sorry pattern of ad-hoc negotiations continues to prevail instead of what is critically needed: an institutionalized, predictable mechanism for the comprehensive, holistic and durable resolutions of all outstanding issues,” she said. 

Lack of trust and sense of partnership is underlining the rocky relations between the federal and autonomous governments, according to Hennis-Plasschaert. 

Energy is perhaps the most contentious ongoing issue between them. Baghdad demands the total control of the Kurdistan Region’s oil and gas while Kurdish authorities constantly insist on joint administration of the vital resources as stipulated by the 2005 Iraqi constitution. 

While the two sides regularly hold talks to address these outstanding issues, worsened by Baghdad cutting the Kurdistan Region’s budget in 2014, they have not yet reached a concrete resolution.