Iraq's Kurds Face Iranian Opposition To Energy Development, PM Says

The development of oil and gas in Iraq's northern Kurdish region may not be in the interest of Iran, Kurdish Prime Minister Masrour Barzani said on Tuesday.

Attacks on the region's capital Erbil and the federal government's legal actions have demonstrated the resistance to development in the energy-rich region.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said early this month it struck Israeli "strategic centers" in Erbil in retaliation for an Israeli air raid that killed two of its members in Syria.

But most of the 12 missiles fired into the Kurdish capital hit the villa of a Kurdish businessman involved in the autonomous region's energy sector.

A Kurdish gas export plan could threaten Iran's place as a major supplier to Iraq and Turkey when its economy is reeling from international sanctions, sources told Reuters. The pipeline could send energy via Turkey to Europe at a time that Iran is under US sanctions and its ally, Russia wants to preserve its dominance in Europe’s markets.

The attack was shortly after Iraq's federal court deemed an oil and gas law regulating the oil industry in Iraqi Kurdistan unconstitutional and demanded that Kurdish authorities hand over their crude supplies.

Speaking at an industry event in the United Arab Emirates, Barzani said the court ruling was political and that Kurdistan is negotiating with the Iraqi federal government to preserve what he called their constitutional rights.

Reporting by Reuters