PUK asks Baghdad to stop exporting oil through Kurdistan

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – An official from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) asked the Iraqi Prime Minister to stop exporting oil through the Kirkuk oil fields.

Hero Ibrahim Ahmed, a member of PUK Political Bureau and the wife of the former Iraqi President Jalal Talabani has asked the Iraqi PM Haider al-Abadi in an official letter to stop the exportation of Kirkuk oil via the Kurdistan Region pipelines.

On Wednesday, Ahmed sent an official letter to Abadi to “explain the position of the PUK” on the Erbil-Baghdad deal to export Kirkuk oil jointly in which KRG exports 50 percent and Baghdad exports 50 percent via Kurdistan Region pipeline to Turkey’s Ceyhan port.

“Out of eagerness of the positive relations between us,” the letter explains “we reiterate the position of the PUK on the necessity of following transparency and justice in the whole of oil-related process.”

Hero Ahmed whose son is the Deputy PM of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) said in the letter “The revenues of oil exports from Kirkuk are not spent in a just and transparent way and the employees of Kirkuk are denied salary.”

The decision of exporting oil from Kirkuk has been made without our agreement, Ahmed added, stating that “We reject the exportation of 100,000 barrel of oil per day and we demand Iraq to stop the exports within five days;” otherwise, “We will take other measures available in hand to stop the oil export.”

In April 1, a group of PUK officials including Barham Salih and Kosrat Rasool Ali, the deputies of the party’s Secretary General, established a “Decision-making Center” within the PUK against what they call, “the exploitation of a powerful group within the party.”

They accused “the powerful group” of being “directly and indirectly responsible for cutting the salaries of the employees and the Peshmerga forces of Kurdistan.”

Editing by Ava Homa