Kurdistan
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi (left) meets with his Kurdish counterpart Masrour Barzani (right) in Baghdad on July 23, 2022. Photo: Kurdistan Region Prime Minister's office
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Region visited Baghdad on Saturday and discussed cooperation against Iraqi sovereignty violations with his Iraqi counterpart following a deadly Turkish shelling of the Kurdistan Region.
PM Barzani met with his Iraqi counterpart Mustafa al-Kadhimi and other Iraqi officials in the capital to highlight security coordination between the regional and federal governments as well as outstanding issues between Erbil and Baghdad, but focused heavily on a recent Turkish attack in Duhok's Zakho district that claimed the lives of nine Iraqi tourists and injured dozens more.
Both prime ministers expressed "their strong condemnation of the Turkish aggressions on Iraqi territory" and "stressed the importance of a unified vision to deal with the attack, and investigate its circumstances in a way that fortifies Iraq's sovereignty and prevents violating it in the future," read a joint statement from their offices.
A deadly bombardment struck a tourist resort in Zakho on Wednesday afternoon, claiming the lives of nine Iraqis including a one-year-old child and injuring 23 others. The attack was widely blamed on Turkey by both Iraq and the Kurdistan Region.
Barzani described his Baghdad visit as "productive" in a Twitter post.
Productive full-day visit to Baghdad.
— Masrour Barzani (@masrour_barzani) July 23, 2022
Iraqi Prime Minister @MAKadhimi and I are aligned to work together as one team for the common good of our peoples, including in areas of the economy, security, and energy.
Read our joint statement -mb.
In the meeting, Barzani and Kadhimi also agreed to "increase dialogue between the Federal Ministry of Oil and the Ministry of Natural Resources in the Kurdistan Region" in efforts to resolve outstanding issues between Erbil and Baghdad.
Iraq's top court in February found the Kurdistan Region's oil and gas law to be "unconstitutional," therefore striking down the legal basis for the Region's oil and gas sector, a decision repeatedly slammed by Kurdish leaders, including Barzani, who criticized the "unconstitutional court."
Iraq's oil ministry on July 7 told AP that his ministry intends to give international oil companies (IOCs) who have signed deals with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) a cautionary note.
"We will give them a soft message: 'You are working in the smuggling of oil.' If they are a respectful company they will listen to us," Ihsan Abdul Jabbar firmly stated, marking the strongest remarks yet by a senior government official since the issuing of the federal court decision.
Barzani also met with Iraqi Parliament Speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi and Chairman of the Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council Faeq Zidan in his Baghdad visit.
The need to ensure the lasting defeat of the Islamic State (ISIS) and the ongoing threats the jihadist group poses were also discussed in the meeting between the prime ministers, who discussed coordination between federal and regional security forces.
On Tuesday, Iraq launched a fresh phase of an anti-ISIS operation, dubbed Solid Will, in coordination with Peshmerga forces targeting the terror group in the vicinity of Mount Qarachogh near Makhmour town, an area infamous for ISIS activity in a security vacuum between Erbil and Baghdad stretching across several provinces including Kirkuk, Salahaddin, and Diyala.
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