The Kurdish Coalition is currently
boycotting both the parliament and the cabinet. This came after the 2013 budget
was passed without their consent at the beginning of March. Afterward Kurdistan
Regional Government (KRG) President Massoud Barzani called for a conference on
the matter with Kurdish politicians, and they have not gone back to work since
then. The Coalition is facing two problems. The first is that the Kurdish
parties are not united, and have different views on what action to take
vis-à-vis Baghdad, and the second is that the Kurds lack the numbers to have a meaningful
affect upon Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s government. That poses the
question of what can they achieve through their action.
Iraq’s 2013 budget was the most
controversial since the country regained its sovereignty in 2005. On March 7,
2013, the $118.6 billion budget, the largest in Iraqi history was passed by the
parliament. Usually every party votes for the document, but this year was
different. The Kurds and the Maliki government got into a heated debate over
compensation for international oil companies (IOCs) operating in Kurdistan. The
Kurdish Coalition claimed that IOCs were due $3.5 billion in costs for their operations in the north. The budget only ended up including $650 million
for them. Baghdad said that the KRG was not turning over all their oil profits
to the central government, were smuggling petroleum, had not met their monthly export quotas, and were not turning over their accounts for auditing. A
Kurdish delegation headed by Natural Resource Minister Ashti Hawrami travelled
to Baghdad, and met with Oil Minister Abdul Karim Luaibi at the end of February
to try to resolve the issue, but nothing came of it. The result was that the vote for the budget was held without the Kurdish Coalition present. The
list immediately objected, saying that a consensus should have been formed
before its confirmation. Usually, the national budget is something that brings
together all of Iraq’s fractious political parties, because they all benefit
from the money spent. This year, the argument between the central and regional
governments over who has control over energy policy, led to the first majority
vote on the document. Kurdistan demands that it has the right to sign its own
petroleum contracts, which Baghdad calls illegal. This argument has gone on for
the last several years, while at the same time there has been a series of
short-term agreements that allowed the Kurds to export oil through the northern pipeline to Turkey. That recently broke down when Maliki refused to pay the
companies working in the north. The KRG went ahead and signed a deal to truck petroleum and refined products to Turkey, and is working on its own independent oil pipeline to that country. To strike back, the prime
minister got the 2013 budget through parliament without including the Kurdish
Coalition. That led to the current boycott.
Pres. Barzani has organized a Kurdish
boycott of the central government (KRG)
President Barzani organized the
Kurdish boycott of the central government, but he is facing opposition. On
March 9, Barzani called for all the Kurdish parliamentarians to meet with him
in Irbil to discuss the 2013 budget. They issued a joint statement
criticizing Maliki and his State of Law list, and called on the other Shiite
parties to oppose him. Then on March 12, Kurdish ministers did not show up at a
cabinet meeting. Finally, on March 18, an official boycott of the government was announced. What hasn’t been decided is what the next move will be.
Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) reportedly wants to withdraw from the government. The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) disagreed, in part
because it has a much better relationship with Maliki, and it is also afraid
that Barzani is attempting to monopolize power in the KRG. The opposition parties
the Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU) and the Change List have come out against the
boycott of the parliament, stating that the problem is with Maliki not the
legislature. They are also unwilling to completely go along with the two ruling
parties the KDP and PUK, and have their concerns about Pres. Barzani as well.
The problem for the Kurdish parties is that they lack the numbers in either the
cabinet or parliament to have any real affect. Both can continue their
business, and in fact, helps Maliki, because he doesn’t have to deal with the
Kurds. For instance, the prime minister just put all the Kurdish ministers on leave, showing that he doesn’t mind the boycott at all. The Sadr movement
was recently carrying out its own boycott, and has the most ministries in the
government. Together the two lists could have achieved something like getting
concessions from Maliki, but the Sadrists just returned to work. Finally, the
Iraqi National Movement is also withholding their ministers over the on-going
protests in Anbar, but that has split the party with some going back to work.
That leaves the Kurdish Coalition largely powerless to achieve anything with
their tactic.
President Barzani has come out as one
of the leading opponents of Prime Minister Maliki, and the 2013 budget was the
latest source of dispute between them. The Kurdish Coalition demanded that oil
companies in Kurdistan be fully compensated for their operations, while Baghdad
wanted to punish the KRG for signing its own oil contracts, and exporting oil
independently. The premier ended up winning that fight. The Kurdish parties
then started a boycott of the parliament and cabinet, but cracks in the list
are beginning to show. More importantly, there doesn’t appear any way that the
Kurds can gain anything from either the boycott or threatening to withdraw from
the government. They don’t have enough seats and ministries from stopping
business as usual, and have no real dependable allies to help them either. If
Pres. Barzani insists on maintaining the boycott, some of the other parties may
break away and go back, or more likely the whole thing will eventually be
called off. This is a reflection of the state of current Iraqi politics. Many
lists have problems with the premier, but have been largely ineffective in
dealing with him, because they are too divided. That’s highlighted with the
current Kurdish boycott.
SOURCES
AIN, “Ratification of Federal Budget
without Kurds’ approval “negative step”, says MP,” 3/7/13
Ali, Ahmed, and Wicken, Stephen,
“2013 Iraq Weekly Update #11: Violence Threatens Electoral Campaign,” Institute
for the Study of War, 3/15/13
Barznjy, Hiwa, “stay or go? iraq’s
kurdish MPs debate leaving govt. again,” Niqash, 4/4/13
National Iraqi News Agency,
“Breaking News--- Maliki awards leave for Kurds’ ministers,” 4/7/13
- “Replace Sadr’s ministers after
deadline finishes,” 3/21/13
Ninanews, “Kurdistan rules out
withdrawal from Iraqi govt, disagreement between KDP and PUK,” 3/11/13
Oil & Gas Journal, “Genel working to debottleneck Iraq
Taq Taq oil output,” 3/13/13
Reuters, “Iraq budget stalemate
deepens over Kurd oil payments,” 2/27/13
Salaheddin, Sinan, “Parliament
approves national budget for Iraq,” Associated Press, 3/7/13
No comments:
Post a Comment