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Press TV has conducted an interview with Zayd al-Isa, an expert on Iraq's affairs, in London, to the recent developments regarding the relations between the central government in Baghdad and Iraq's semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan over the latter's oil exports.

Press TV: This is not a legal issue, Zayd al-Isa, as our guest [the other guest of the program] said. It’s a political one. Do you agree? What’s the political point here?  

Al-Isa: First of all, let me be very clear about it. What is happening by Kurdistan is a clear and stark, blatant violation of the letter and the spirit of the Iraqi constitution. The national wealth, the sovereign wealth of the country belongs to the government, which represents the Iraqi people and their entirety. The government has to be representative of all Iraqi people regardless of their sect or ethnicity and the only government in the land which represents the Iraqi people is the central government which the Iraqi Kurdistan regional government is supposed to be part and parcel of, because they have highly prominent ministers within that government and actually the president of Iraq who is supposed to be the guardian and the protector of the Iraqi constitution is actually a Kurd.

The Kurds feature prominently within that government and the sole right to actually develop and export Iraqi oil should belong exclusively to the central government, which then has the responsibility of distributing that wealth amongst the regions which are supposed to be within a federal Iraq.

The actions of the Kurdish regional government are in stark and flagrant violation of the federal nature of Iraq. Not only in terms of the export of oil but we have a whole host of flagrant violations which range from foreign policy that the Kurds are pursuing independently and without consultation and in stark violation of the terms and condition of the Iraqi constitution, forming and establishing relations with highly and increasing hostile governments like Qatar, Saudi Arabia and in total consultation and coordination with Turkey.

We have also the flagrant violation by the Peshmergas, who are supposed to be part and parcel of the Iraqi military while we can clearly see that they are hellbent on confronting and combating the very Iraqi army and the refusing to hand over responsibility to the Iraqi army in terms of the exclusive powers that the constitution stipulate should be the Iraqi government’s own. An exclusive responsibility that is overall uncontested control of the airports, of border posts, and we have seen the Peshmergas firing and combating the Iraqi army. Also importing highly sophisticated weapons and seizing the Iraqi army’s own weaponry, which belongs to the old Iraqi army and this all happens under the full eye and the full consent of the American occupying forces, with the not reigning the influence and the exceeding power of the Peshmergas and actually allow them under the perfect pretext of combating... to extend their control over what they call “contested areas.”

Press TV: Zayd al-Isa has a reaction to what you [the other guest of the program] are saying, and we will come back to you. Zayd al-Isa, go ahead.

Al-Isa: Let me respond. What you are saying is simply a carbon copy and a repeat of what has been propagated over and over again by Massoud Barzani, which is baseless and groundless. He has actually extended his presidency without referring back or going back to the very people who elected him, that is the Kurdish people and that’s the stark violation of the basic principles of democracy. He does not adhere to democracy and he has utilized and exploited the void left by the departure of Jalal Talabani, the leader of the PUK due to sickness and he has actually exploited as well to tighten his grip on power and to tighten the news around the PUK’s legitimate rights in Kurdistan.

Press TV: What’s your reaction to the fact that Israel has been a buyer of this [oil]?

Al-Isa: First of all, any academic who respects people, would give them a chance to responds to his points. He [the other guest of the program] is totally incapable of listening and I wonder whether he is a formal mouthpiece of Massoud Barzani because what he has reiterated and gone on and on about is the simple message propagated by Massoud Barzani who refused adamantly and defiantly to listen to the will of the Kurdish people by actually subjecting and going through a presidential elections as the constitution of Kurdistan stipulates, rather than extend his mandate and shove himself down the throat of Kurdish people.

He has been extending, accumulating and monopolizing power at the expense of the PUK taking advantage of the absence of Jalal Talabani, who is a moderate and wise man who wanted always to pursue negotiations and reconciliation with the Iraqi central government.

Now let me tell you why Massoud Barzani has politically, taken this political move and has gone through this step of exporting officially and formally through Turkey now.

This has happened comes hard on the heels of the Iraqi general elections, which have clearly demonstrated and beyond the shadow of doubt that Maleki has a commanding seismic lead and has turned out to be the first and the front-runner to actually reestablish a new Iraqi government.

What Massoud Barzani has tried to do is to forestall any and to thwart any attempts of actually forging an alliance between one of the political blocks, namely the PUK with the State of Law in order to represent the Kurdish interests and that’s why the Kurdish government which has actually been trying to forge or hammer out a compromise government in Kurdistan, which has been forestalled and has been incapable of doing that for now eight months, has suddenly come up with a compromise solution in order to enable Massoud Barzani to stave off and prevent any political entities to actually speak out and represent the Kurdish voice within any negotiations that is going to be forth coming between the State of Law and the Kurdish representer.

Press TV: Is that a feasible solution, bringing in the Islamic Republic as a mediator between the Kurdistan region and the local government there?

Al-Isa: The response to that is very simple. You cannot negotiate and claim that you are negotiating in good faith while you are still violating the Iraqi constitution by formally exporting Iraqi oil through Turkey, where Turkey is benefiting out of it by again breaking the international norms in relation in violation of, also the agreements between the Iraqi government and turkey in a concerted relentless effort that we have witness from Turkey in coordination with Saudi Arabia and Qatar to dramatically weaken the central government and destabilize Iraq.

Let’s not forget that one of the ultimate priorities has been to weaken the central government, which is again a central government which represents the Kurds. Now your guest has been over and over again referring to it as Maleki’s government, which is again picking something from the Saudi media who always refer to Iraqi central government...