Baghdad’s oil deals a blow to Kurdish clout in northern talks

WASHINGTON - The central government’s oil deals in southern Iraq could be weakening Kurdish leverage to win Baghdad approval of its own oil deals or to push for other concessions in the ongoing Kurd vs. Arab disputes now slowing political progress, according to one of the top analysts on the subject.

"Let's Assume that in six years these companies will manage to jack up total output to six million barrels a day, how important then will a few fields in Kurdistan be to Baghdad?" said Joost Hiltermann, Middle East and North Africa deputy program director for the International Crisis Group, during an interview with the Iraq Oil Report in his Washington office. "This is a very bad scenario for the Kurds."