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Q&A: Finance Minister Hoshyar Zebari

The man holding Iraq's purse strings discusses the need to look forward despite years of acrimony over oil, land and revenues.
Then-Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, now Finance Minister, meets with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Baghdad on June 23, 2014. (THAIER AL-SUDANI/Reuters)

ERBIL - As a Kurd sitting at the helm of the all-important Finance Ministry in Baghdad, Hoshyar Zebari straddles the political divide between Baghdad and Erbil - and has a unique view into the nascent efforts to bridge that gap.

On Tuesday, the Iraqi Cabinet unanimously approved a plan that could see Kurdistan facilitate some 550,000 barrels per day (bpd) of federal oil exports, in exchange for a 17 percent share of the federal budget. The deal has sparked rare talk of resolving oil policy disputes that have plagued Iraq for a decade.

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