Al-Fatah has "conditions" to vote in favor of Kurdistan's share in the budget

Shafaq News / Al-Fatah alliance revealed its conditions in exchanges for voting in favor of Kurdistan Region's share in the 2021 budget, hinting at shifting the decision-making procedure to a Majority Vote.

MP of the coalition, Ahmad Al-Kanani, told Shafaq News Agency, " first, oil fields in Kurdistan region must be jointly administrated by the Federal Ministry of Oil and the regional Ministry of Natural Resources. Second, export operations and sales estimation must be supervised by SOMO company", adding, "Erbil rejects these conditions and wants to manage the whole thing by itself, but this violates Article 112 of the Constitution."

Al-Kinani pointed out, "The Federal Ministry of Oil must also assess the oil production and exportation costs, deduct the main costs, and handing over the remainder to the public treasury."

Furthermore, "the region must hand over all non-oil revenues to the treasury. Therefore, the federal government will be committed to all the region's dues according to the budget law for 2021."

The Prime Minister of Kurdistan Region, Masrour Barzani, said recently that the general federal budget should be based on the constitution and benefit the Iraqi people in general, indicating that negotiations with Baghdad are ongoing.

"We hear people saying that the region must hand over its oil file to Baghdad," Barzani explained, "this is unconstitutional, and we reject the violation of Kurdistan's rights."

Last December, Baghdad and Erbil reached an agreement that stipulates the region must deliver 250,000 barrels of oil per day, and the border crossings revenues to the federal government, in exchange for a budget share of 12.6%. However, the deal fell apart later under the pressure of Shiite factions.