By Hiwa Husamedin KIRKUK, Kurdistan Region— The Iraqi government will not be able to allocate any budget in 2016 for Kirkuk’s railway development that has been defunct since 2003, according to a statement from Iraq’s transportation ministry which sparked immediate reactions in both Baghdad and Kirkuk. “This is a political decision directed against Kirkuk and its future within Kurdistan region and Iraq,” said Rebwar Taha a Kurdish Iraqi member of parliament in Baghdad who described the move as a “deliberate political attempt” to postpone strategic projects in the city. “The railway is a long-term plan very much needed to connect the city with the rest of Iraq and Kurdistan region but apparently Baghdad believes it is a waste of money if Kirkuk chooses to stay with the Kurdistan region,” Taha added. Kirkuk is only one in a vast number of areas throughout Iraq that fall under the so-called disputed territories whose future according to the constitution should decide whether they want to join Iraq’s central government in Baghdad or the Kurdistan region in the north. The referendum should have been held in 2007 but was postponed indefinitely as Erbil and Baghdad disagreed on how to hold the vote. Baghdad has opposed KRG’s precondition of the complete return of “Arab settlers” from Kirkuk to their areas in south Iraq before the referendum is held. With nearly 2000 kilometers standard gauge, the Iraqi railroad connects major cities in the country. It has also one international interchange to Syria from Mosul. Kirkuk’s station was added to the railway network in 1949 after Iraqi Petroleum Company opened a branch in the city, which holds an estimated 10 percent of Iraq’s 140 billion barrels of crude oil reserves. As a public transportation medium, the station was expanded in late 1980s and offered services until 2003 when it was temporarily shut down for renovation. The government planned to rehabilitate the railway network and extend it from Kirkuk to other Kurdish cities including Erbil, but the plans have been frozen for the past two years. “There was a Hungarian corporation that had a plan to reconstruct the railway and expand it to Sulaimani and Dohuk, but the transportation ministry rejected their offer,” Diler Muhammad, the administrator of Kirkuk railway station told Rudaw. With an estimated cost of $3 billion Iraq’s central government has in the past agreed to finance the project. Baghdad has said the plummeting oil prices and ISIS war have left no room for development plans and withheld the budget earmarked by past cabinets for Kirkuk railway. Lawmakers in Kirkuk are skeptical and regard the motives as political. “Whether it is the airport or railway or any other strategic project, I really doubt Iraqi government would want to implement it. They have openly said if Kirkuk returns to Kurdistan region, they won’t fund the city, and why would they,” said Ahmad Eskeri, member of Kirkuk provincial council.
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