By Ali Latif
Iraq has linked the signing of a new trade agreement with Turkey to the success of negotiations on a water-sharing pact, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said.
Dabbagh said Iraqi parliament has made the signing of the agreement conditional on solving the water conflict with Turkey.
The new agreement was expected to substantially boost value of Turkish exports to Iraq.
Turkey’s rationing of water volumes reaching Iraq “is unacceptable,” Dabbagh said.
He said: “Turkey still refuses to sign an agreement that will supply Iraq with a certain volume of water” from the rivers Tigris and Euphrates which originate in Turkey.
In a press conference attended by Agriculture Minister Izzudeen al-Dawla, Dabbagh said: “We are going to link all our relations with Turkey with the subject of our water share.”
However, Dabbagh acknowledged that the whole world was facing water problems “but this does not mean that Turkey suffers as much as Iraq does from lack of water.
“Iraq still relies on traditional Irrigation and needs more time to improve its methods,” he said.
The Tigris and Euphrates are more known to be Iraqi rivers, though they get almost all their waters from Turkey.
The volume of water flowing through the rivers has receded in the past few years and if climate change continues experts believe that both rivers will dry in less than three decades.
via Azzaman in English.
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