The head of the Kurdistan Foreign Relations Department, Fatah Mustafa, stressed today that Kurdistan would never politically surrender to brazen economic actions taken by the Iraqi government, reports Rudaw.

Mustafa called for equal power sharing to address the Kurdish desire for complete independence from Iraq.

Responding to a question on tension between Baghdad and Erbil regarding oil production, Mustafa said,

“Oil is not the only issue. There’s the status of Peshmarga. [Baghdad refuses to pay budget for Kurdish security forces.]  The best solution is to form a confederation, where we move to two or three sovereign states within the boundaries of Iraq so that we can have equal powers and equal rights. That would be only fair considering the suffering and the tragic history of Kurdish people.”

Kurdish Independence from Iraq: The Ball is Rolling

The Kurdistan Region appears to have set the ball rolling toward independence from Iraq.

The first signs of this emerged last week when the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) announced -- despite threats from Baghdad -- the sale of one million barrels of Kurdish oil that had been stored at the Turkish port of Ceyhan.

With this move Kurdish authorities in Erbil not only defied Iraq’s central government, they also ignored warnings from the United States, which has consistently stood against Kurdistan selling its oil without Baghdad’s consent.