Article 140 budget allocation not enough, says former Iraqi PM

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The spending amount allocated for the implementation of Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution in the new budget is not enough to satisfy its needs, Iraq’s former Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi told Rudaw, calling for the completion of the controversial item as it is “a cause for disagreement.”

Iraq’s Council of Ministers in March approved the federal budget bill for the years 2023, 2024, and 2025 after the country was left devoid of a new budget for 2022 due to the instability in the political process. The lack of a budget had highly jeopardized the country’s economy.

The Iraqi parliament is yet to pass the bill, which includes a total of 100 billion Iraqi dinars allocated to the implementation of Article 140.

“It [amount] does not meet the needs… Article 140 is not only about Kirkuk, but rather Iraq as a whole, and there were no allocations for years and the requests are piling up. This amount will create problems. How will you distribute it, and to who?” Abadi said. 

Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution details steps to resolve a dispute between the federal and regional government who both claim jurisdiction over disputed areas of the country such as Kirkuk province. Successive federal governments have failed to implement the article.

Abadi stated that while in the Kurdistan Region the Article is viewed as a top priority, that is not the case for the rest of Iraq, as many politicians believe a lot of money has been spent on the topic and that the process has already been completed.

Erbil-Baghdad oil agreement

Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani and Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani earlier this month signed an agreement to resume the Region’s oil exports to Turkey more than ten days after it was halted following a ruling by a Paris-based arbitration court.

Abadi believed that halting the export of oil to Turkey would be “a massive loss” for the upcoming budget, as the Kurdistan Region exports around 400 thousand barrels of oil and Iraq around 75 thousand barrels of oil through the Ceyhan port on a daily basis.

The former Iraqi premier also called for hastening the process of drafting an Iraqi oil and gas law, agreed upon by both Baghdad and Erbil, believing that the previous draft of the law might need to be rephrased to match the rulings of the Paris arbitration court and that of the Iraqi federal Supreme Court in 2022.

“We support any agreement to facilitate the process of exporting oil and distributing the revenue in a just manner, and it must be done,” he added.

Calls for drafting an oil and gas law have resurfaced since the formation of the new Iraqi government under Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani in October, after a ruling from Iraq’s top court in February 2022 deeming the Kurdistan Region’s oil and gas law “unconstitutional” escalated tensions between Erbil and Baghdad.