The gas of the Kurdistan region is a new strategic player... Is it destabilizing the relations of Tu

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[size=52]The gas of the Kurdistan region is a new strategic player... Is it destabilizing the relations of Turkey, Iran and Russia?[/size]

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JOHNSON-MASROUR BARZANI'S TALKS IN LONDON FOCUSED ON THE POSSIBILITY OF THE KURDISTAN REGION EXPORTING ENERGY TO EUROPE.
Less than three weeks after the Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Masrour Barzani, announced the region’s intention to export natural gas to European countries, during his participation in the World Energy Conference held in the United Arab Emirates in late March, the region’s authorities began a group of Practical steps, which observers considered as executive procedures to start exporting.

After a practical visit to Turkey several days ago, the president of the region arrived in the United Kingdom, where Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that his meeting with Barzani discussed "exporting energy to Europe to reduce its dependence on oil and gas from Russia," CNN quoted him as, at a time The Kurdistan Regional Government's negotiating delegation announced its intention to reach "final solutions" between the two parties regarding the extraction and export of oil and gas from the region.

The file of natural gas available to be extracted and exported from the region to European countries has risen to the fore during the past two months, after the outbreak of the Russian war on Ukraine, as many European countries searched for alternative sources of Russian gas. The Kurdistan region is the closest region in the world geographically and the most politically harmonious to the possibility of meeting this new European demand for new natural gas exporters to the countries of the Union.

Iranian opposition
The aspirations of the Kurdistan region to develop and export its natural gas product encountered clear Iranian opposition. Numerous media and economic reports indicated that the Kurdistan region’s strategy to transform into a major exporter of natural gas collides with Iran’s pursuit of continuing as an exclusive source of natural gas to Iraq, which this country uses in the field of electricity production, and provides the Iranian public treasury with huge sums of money, especially since Iraq has been able for years Obtaining exemptions from the US sanctions regime against Iran, which is a major source of hard currency for Tehran.

Also, the natural gas, which the Kurdistan region is expected to start providing to markets in Turkey and many European countries, is withdrawing from Iran a political card with added value, because Iran was looking forward to using natural gas as an economic factor to improve its political relations with Turkey and European countries, in the post-war period. The occurrence of a Russian-European clash, an opportunity that will vanish in the event that the Kurdistan region undertakes this task.

Specialized researcher Shafan Rasoul explained to An-Nahar Al-Arabi the three main dilemmas that the region suffers from before turning the natural gas sector into a strategic factor in its future economic and political aspirations. He said: “Depending on the special situation that the region enjoys, this file requires first an Iraqi political consensus. and general approval. The current negotiations between the central government and the Kurdistan Regional Government are taking place under the pressure of the recent Federal Court decision, which ruled that the region’s extraction and export of oil and gas from its lands were “illegitimate.” Therefore, it is required first to obtain political acknowledgment of this, which seems to be highly polarized at the moment. While the European countries, and to some extent the United States, support this to happen, Iran will use all its pressure tools inside Iraq to prevent any agreement between the central authority and its counterpart in Iraq. Kurdistan Region”.

tangled dilemmas
Rasoul adds: “There is also another economic dilemma, as the region suffers from an accumulated financial and economic crisis, and it has a mass of foreign debts. For this reason, the strategic extraction and export of gas require foreign investments in huge amounts, at a time when the proportion of risks in those investments appears relatively high, due to the legal dispute with the center, and the security tensions surrounding the region. Above all, the extraction and export of gas means to some extent a blow to Russian interests, as it has huge investments in the Kurdistan region, and in the oil sector in particular, and it is a third dilemma that must be overcome.”
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Unaudited statistics had indicated that the Kurdistan region's reserves of natural gas so far are 5.6 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, a quantity that makes the region the seventh region in the world in terms of gas reserves, directly after the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It is a quantity capable of satisfying many regional and global markets at the same time, including the needs of Turkey and various eastern Mediterranean countries, for many years.

However, engineering experts point out that the region needs about five years of strategic work, to be able to start extracting and exporting gas in a commercial form, if there are investments and legal and security stability during this period.

regional sensibilities
The writer specializing in political economy, Jamal Abera, explained to “An-Nahar Al-Arabi” how this file may cause more regional sensitivities in the coming years, and said: “Turkey considers this file of strategic importance to it. On the one hand, he will liberate it from a traditional Iranian instrument of control, which controls With it for years, it will also improve Turkey’s position in the European system, as the gas of the Kurdistan region will be added to the seminal gas exported from Azerbaijan, and subsequently Turkey will turn into an inevitable crossing for the economy and lifeline in Europe.”

And he added in passing: “This Turkish eagerness will increase sensitivities between it and Iran and its allies on one side, and towards Russia on the other, the latter which uses the oil and gas files as a strategic tool in its vision to create a balance with European powers and even with many countries in the region, which may It changes the stable balance that currently prevails in the trilateral relationship, Turkey, Iran and Russia, which may affect the various outstanding issues between the three powers, from Syria to the Caucasus countries and not the end of the PKK.”
Arab day
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