Postponement of Turkish President's visit to Iraq amidst negotiation disagreements

Shafaq News / A government source revealed on Sunday that the visit of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, has been postponed by the Turkish side, until further notice.

The source, who requested anonymity, added that "the reason for postponing the visit is due to the lack of agreement on negotiation files between the Iraqi and Turkish sides. The Turkish side wants the visit to be solely focused on discussing the presence of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and trade exchange, without resolving the issues related to water, as well as the issue of re-exporting oil from the Kurdistan Region (KRI) through the Turkish port of Ceyhan. This is why the visit was postponed."

Notably, Al Sudani conducted an official visit to Turkey in March, during which several issues were discussed, including border security, mutual intelligence cooperation, and information exchange, as well as water and energy files.

This was followed by a visit to Baghdad and Erbil by Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan last month.

Turkey had halted oil exports from KRI on March 25th, following a decision by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) ordering Ankara to pay Baghdad $1.5 billion in compensation for exports between 2014 and 2018.

In response, Iraq submitted a request to a US federal court in April to enforce the arbitration decision issued by the ICC.

The Turkish government conditioned the resumption of oil exports on Baghdad relinquishing the ruling to exempt Ankara from the required compensation. Meanwhile, Ankara filed a lawsuit against Baghdad, seeking more than $900 million in compensation.