The Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ Al Sudani announced reaching an agreement to end the dispute between Baghdad and Erbil over the Kurdistan region’s oil revenues. In a press conference held after the cabinet session, Al Sudani said that an agreement was reached to resolve the pending issues between the central government and the Kurdistan region regarding oil and gas, by depositing Kurdistan’s oil revenues in a bank account. The Iraqi PM added that an agreement was reached for the first time, elaborating that Kurdistan’s oil revenues will be deposited in a single account, with the Kurdistan prime minister together with the federal prime minister will both be authorized to monitor the account, as well as the existence of a committee that will submit its recommendations for appropriate decisions to be taken. The issue of oil export and revenues in the Kurdistan region is one of the most prominent points of contention between Baghdad and Erbil, and it was usually used as leverage for political escalation when relations between the central government in Baghdad and the Kurdistan regional government were strained. The dispute over this file escalated after the Federal Supreme Court (the highest judicial authority in Iraq) issued a ruling on Feb. 15, 2022, stating that the Kurdistan government’s oil and gas law was unconstitutional. The Federal Supreme Court obligated the Kurdistan regional government to hand over oil exports revenues to Baghdad, which sparked angry reactions from the latter, during a period that was already witnessing serious political tension, as the court’s ruling was issued in conjunction with the peak of the political deadlock that followed the early elections of October 2021.

Source: Qatar News Agency