An American report reveals opportunities for creating cooperation between Iraq and Turkey

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[size=52]An American report reveals opportunities for creating cooperation between Iraq and Turkey[/size]

[size=45]Translated by: Hamed Ahmed[/size]
[size=45]A report by the Middle East Institute for Studies in Washington dealt with the state of the mutual diplomatic activity witnessed last week by mutual visits of officials between Iraq and Turkey, the entirety of which focused on oil exports and the water crisis in Iraq, as well as the issue of the presence of PKK groups in northern Iraq.[/size]
[size=45]As this activity paved the way for an expected visit of the Turkish president to Iraq, which Iraqi sources expect to happen this September, indicating that it may eventually lead to the two countries agreeing on ways to move forward to find solutions to these thorny problems.[/size]
[size=45]The Turkish Foreign Minister and the Turkish Energy Minister visited Iraq last week, while the Iraqi Oil Minister visited Ankara, and the visit included Baghdad, Erbil and Ankara. The report indicates that the outcome of these visits was not impressive and exciting, and that the general statements did not present new ideas and were limited to confirmations of long-established positions, demands and expressions of future hopes. However, there is an opportunity for Iraq to study and scrutinize matters and improve its position by bargaining, at least with regard to the problem of exporting oil, water and other matters.[/size]
[size=45]The first issue is related to Baghdad and Erbil’s efforts to resume oil exports from Kirkuk and the region through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline, which has been suspended since March and cost Iraq much of its loss of billions of dollars that were considered necessary to support the implementation of its budget for the year 2023 amounting to 150 billion dollars and reduce its deficit rate of 48 percent. Billion dollar.[/size]
[size=45]The second thorny issue for Iraq is the issue of water. Where the country is currently experiencing the consequences of another drought year, represented by the drying up of lakes and large bodies of water in the marshes, while the levels of water flow of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers from their sources in Turkey towards Iraq, as well as from rivers in Iran, diminish, which prompted Iraq to take desperate measures such as installing new pumps to extract water From dead spaces in search of groundwater along the two rivers.[/size]
[size=45]The report indicates that the situation of the water issue is more stressful, especially with rivers and tributaries emanating from Iran, such as the Little Zab, whose flow to Iraq was blocked by Iran for weeks, as well as the Euphrates River, which officials in Iraq's water resources say is about to dry up before it can meet with the river. Tigris in the Qurna district of Basra. In July, the office of the Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO, in Iraq stated in a report that the depth gauge of the Euphrates River in Nasiriyah fell to just 56 cm, causing the drying up of nearly 90% of the marsh waters there.[/size]
[size=45]As for the third issue included in the agenda of the officials’ discussions, it is a security issue related in particular to the presence of groups of PKK forces, Beh Kaka, on Iraqi lands extending from the Kurdistan region in Sulaymaniyah to the east in the Makhmour Mountains and north to the Qandil Mountains and along the road to the Sinjar region near The Syrian border to the west.[/size]
[size=45]Turkey had launched massive air strikes to weaken the Kaka bean inside Iraq and insisted that Baghdad and Erbil take action and a stance to end the Kaka virus, according to Ankara's perspective, which has begun to spread along hundreds of miles from its southern border. Iraq also has its own problems with the Beh Kaka groups, whose presence and those affiliated with it caused Turkish military movements and measures that overshadowed the destabilization of the Sinjar region, west of Nineveh Governorate.[/size]
[size=45]Baghdad's position was to make promises to Turkey that it would prevent the use of its territory to launch attacks on Turkey, in reference to the operations carried out by the Beh Kaka groups, but it called on Turkey to avoid taking military measures from one side only, which could cause confusion for both Erbil and Baghdad.[/size]
[size=45]The report indicates that there has been no progress either on the issue of water. The Iraqi Prime Minister, Shia'a al-Sudani, was optimistic about signing a new agreement with Turkey to establish a joint permanent committee with the Turkish side in Iraq regarding water. However, this agreement is considered very small in the face of the major crisis facing the country that has cast a shadow on the environmental, economic and social aspects, taking into account the extent of Turkey's failure to meet its obligations in this aspect, especially since a similar agreement was concluded with Turkey in the year 2021 during the term of former Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi.[/size]
[size=45]The report states that addressing and meeting Iraq's urgent water needs creates appropriate conditions for the involvement of Turkish companies to modernize irrigation systems in Iraq, which will benefit the two riparian countries.[/size]
[size=45]For: Institute for Middle East Studies in Washington[/size]
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