Iraqi Kurds plan to continue oil exports, reach budget allocation

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(Reuters) - Iraqi Kurdistan's natural resources minister said on Tuesday the region plans to continue oil exports and will be able to meet its allocated budget through independent oil shipments by the year-end.

Ashti Hawrami said the central government in Baghdad had withheld budget payments to the region so far this year and before was giving only around 10 percent instead of an agreed 17 percent.

"They pushed us to do this," Hawrami said at a London conference, referring to independent oil exports.

"We're going to create facts on the ground to have my 17 percent in my own hands," Hawrami said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/06/17/us-iraq-kurdistan-exports-idUSKBN0ES0XV20140617

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1. No going back for Iraq after ISIS offensive, Kurdistan PM says

LONDON – It will be “almost impossible” for Iraq to return to how it was before the sweeping gains by jihadist fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), the prime minister of the Kurdistan region warned on Tuesday.

Nechirvan Barzani told the BBC it would be difficult to find a resolution with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in power and recommended an autonomous region for Sunnis as a potential solution.

Militants with ISIS, an al-Qaida splinter group, launched their lightning offensive in Iraq’s second city Mosul a week ago.

In the latest fighting on Monday, Sunni militants took control of several neighborhoods of Tal Afar, between the now rebel-held Mosul and the Syrian border.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/06/17/world/going-back-iraq-isis-offensive-kurdistan-pm-says/