Iraq’s Oil: A Factor for Unity or Division?
Washington DC - Oil has perhaps never posed a threat as big as it does now to the country’s territorial integrity.
Iraqi Kurds have threatened to declare independence after Baghdad suspended their 17% share of the country’s national revenue.
Baghdad says it maintains the sole authority to manage, sell, and export the country’s oil reserves.
Kurdistan rejects this claim outright saying that Iraq’s constitution, which defines Iraq as a federal state, allows them to control oil in their own northern territory.
Kurds say they were massacred in the past and their region was economically marginalized by Saddam Hussein and his predecessors because they didn’t have control over their own oil. This will not happen again, they vow.
Despite its continued support for Iraq’s territorial integrity, the United States seems to have become more empathetic to Kurdish economic aspirations.
“There is no US ban on the transfer or sale of oil originated from any part of Iraq,” said Marie Harf, deputy spokesperson for the State Department repeating words uttered by Assistant Secretary of State Brett McGurck last week.
In this episode of Inside America, we examine the dispute Iraqis have over their natural resources how the world, particularly the United States, is reacting to the issue.
Key Guests:
Joshua Walker, a senior analyst at the Truman Project.
Marina Ottaway, a senior scholar at the Wilson Center.
Iraqi Kurds have threatened to declare independence after Baghdad suspended their 17% share of the country’s national revenue.
Baghdad says it maintains the sole authority to manage, sell, and export the country’s oil reserves.
Kurdistan rejects this claim outright saying that Iraq’s constitution, which defines Iraq as a federal state, allows them to control oil in their own northern territory.
Kurds say they were massacred in the past and their region was economically marginalized by Saddam Hussein and his predecessors because they didn’t have control over their own oil. This will not happen again, they vow.
Despite its continued support for Iraq’s territorial integrity, the United States seems to have become more empathetic to Kurdish economic aspirations.
“There is no US ban on the transfer or sale of oil originated from any part of Iraq,” said Marie Harf, deputy spokesperson for the State Department repeating words uttered by Assistant Secretary of State Brett McGurck last week.
In this episode of Inside America, we examine the dispute Iraqis have over their natural resources how the world, particularly the United States, is reacting to the issue.
Key Guests:
Joshua Walker, a senior analyst at the Truman Project.
Marina Ottaway, a senior scholar at the Wilson Center.