MESOP LATEST – Iraqi PM Abadi: Agreement With Erbil to Increase Iraqi Revenue

06.11.2014 – BasNews, Baghdad – Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has said that Iraq want to increase Iraqi revenue and says one of the steps would be to reach an agreement with Iraqi Kurdistan on oil issues.On Thursday, Abadi held a meeting with all the Iraqi cabinet ministers and said that the current financial crisis Iraq going through are as a result of a number of factors among them, the drop of oil prices around the world, as well as the decline of local production and the disagreement between Baghdad and Erbil over the country’s oil.

“Despite those issues, right now Iraq has a golden opportunity to increase local production and revenue, and then is through increasing oil production as well as reaching an agreement with Kurdistan Region on oil issues,’ said Abadi during the meeting held in Iraqi capital Baghdad.  Regarding the current Iraqi security situation, the Iraqi Primer said that the country faces one of biggest challenges in fighting with the Islamic State militants, however he said those conflicts should not prevent the government to provide services to the public. Since taking office as Prime Minister of Iraq in August 11h, 2014, Abadi faced a number of challenges chief among them fighting Islamic State militants in northern Iraq.