Kurdistan Denies Handing Over Its Oil to Baghdad

The prime minister of Kurdistan Regional Government, Nechirvan Barzani, has said that his government will not hand over the Iraqi region’s oil to the federal government in Baghdad, contrary to what Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Abadi had said on Thursday. Speaking to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Abadi added that his country will abide by OPEC limits to keep the price of oil stable, Middle East Monitor reported. Abadi said in the conference that Iraq’s reconstruction will require between $55 and $100 billion dollars, according to Reuters. Foreign investments are the only way for Iraq’s reconstruction to move forward, Abadi said. Last week, talks between Baghdad and Arbil led to reaching an agreement that the federal government would lift the ban it had imposed on the Arbil and Sulaimaniyah airports in response to the independence referendum that Kurdistan held on 25 September.