Hakan Fidan to visit Baghdad, Irbil for talks

Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan will be traveling to Iraq this week to visit Baghdad Wednesday and the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) capital Irbil Thursday, according to reports in Iraqi media.

Fidan is scheduled to hold talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani, Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein, and several other key political figures during his visit to Baghdad, according to Ahmed al-Sahaf, the spokesperson for the Iraqi Foreign Ministry.

The foreign minister is also set to visit Irbil the following day and meet with the KRG Prime Minister Masour Barzani, KRG spokesperson Peshawa Hawramani confirmed to Rudaw.

Fidan will also meet with President Nechirvan Barzani and Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani during his time in Irbil, Rudaw wrote.

The exact purpose of the visit is yet to be revealed but both Sahaf and Hawramani noted that the Turkish top diplomat will discuss Ankara’s bilateral relations with Baghdad and Irbil, as well as several other topics of shared interest.

Barzani was in Ankara in late June for his third official visit to congratulate President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on his reelection in May and the pair discussed bilateral ties in a meeting accompanied by Fidan.

Türkiye stopped the flow of Kurdish oil through the Iraq-Türkiye pipeline since an arbitration ruling by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) on March 25 ordered Türkiye to pay Baghdad damages of $1.5 billion for unauthorized exports by the KRG between 2014 and 2018.

Irbil and Baghdad signed an agreement to resume the region’s exports in April, but there is still no oil flowing through the pipeline to Türkiye even four months later.