By Muhsin Baris Tiryakioglu
Ankara
The Central Iraqi government will restart transporting oil which was halted in March, Turkey’s Energy and Natural Resources Minister said at an energy conference in Rome on Wednesday.
"Income from oil contributes towards the stability of Iraq, and we (Turkey) argued from the beginning that it belongs to all Iraq both north and south. Turkey did its share of work to form and protect such a system," Turkey's Energy and Natural Resources Minister Taner Yildiz said at the 'Building a Euro Mediterranean Energy Bridge' Conference in Rome.
"We will witness oil transportation of 150 thousand barrels per day effective from today (Wednesday) from the Central Iraqi government," Yildiz said.
Iraq and the Kurdish Regional Government had come to an agreement to resolve the conflict of oil exports and re-establish trust last Friday.
The Kurdish Regional Government continued to sell oil to the world's markets from the Ceyhan port of Turkey via the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline. The central government accused the Kurdish Regional Government of violating the constitution which stipulates that oil sales be administered directly from the capital Baghdad whereas the Kurds insist that it is their right to sell oil for their people’s needs.
- Eastern Mediterranean
On a separate issue regarding the island of Cyprus, Yildiz said the energy resources around Cyprus belong to all the islanders, both the Greek Cypriot Administration and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
According to Yildiz, a sustainable move is to have cooperation in the eastern Mediterranean, and to this end, a political structure on the island needs to be set ensuring economic feasibility.
The Greek-Cypriot Administration suspended talks over the divided island on October 7.
Negotiations between Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots resumed after a two-year pause in February 2013. The previous round of talks collapsed partly because of the impact of the Eurozone debt crisis on the government in Lefkosa.
According to the Turkish Foreign Ministry, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu will visit Athens on December 5 and 6 to attend a bilateral cooperation meeting.
www.aa.com.tr/en
