Hawrami Survives In New KRG Government

Ashti Hawrami will continue as the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Minister of Natural Resources in the new cabinet formed by KRG’s incoming Prime Minister, Barham Salih. Mr Hawrami, who has been the architect of the KRG’s independent oil strategy, was widely expected to remain, despite a scandal over his involvement in the purchase and resale of shares of KRG investor DNO and reputedly a less than ideal personal relationship with Mr Salih. The deal has certainly been controversial, forcing Mr Hawrami to face a parliamentary grilling, but there has been no evidence that he benefited personally from the transaction (MEES, 5 October).

More critically he has the strong support of outgoing prime minister, Nechirvan Barzani and his uncle, KRG president Mas'ud Barzani. They belong to the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), rivals to Mr Salih’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), which fared badly in KRG parliamentary elections this summer. Mr Hawrami has managed to attract investment in the KRG upstream from 25 foreign oil firms – the vast majority of which have taken stakes since September 2007.

There are concerns that Mr Salih might struggle to deliver the effective government the KRG badly needs to combat rampant corruption and make potentially painful decisions in its dispute with Baghdad over Kirkuk and other border issues. Mr Salih is bright, capable and in his previous position as a federal Deputy Prime Minister is widely credited as having done a good job. But the PUK has been largely discredited as a party and Mr Salih lacks tribal clout. Only one Salih close ally – Housing Minister Kamaran Ahmad 'Abd Allah – has been appointed to the cabinet, MEES understands. Deputy Prime Minister, Azad Barwari, belongs to the KDP as does interior minister 'Abd al-Karim Sultan Sinjari. PUK candidates occupy the other two key cabinet posts – peshmerga affairs (Jafar Mustafa 'Ali) and finance and economy (Bayiz Said Muhammad Talabani). Interesting and likely reflecting the KRG’s desire to woo Turkey, its new Minister of Trade and Industry, Sinan 'Abd al-Khaliq Dabagh Chalabi, belongs to the Turkoman Front, MEES understands. Turkish firms are the biggest investors in the KRG upstream and the KRG has encouraged this to act as a counter-weight to Baghdad.

© Copyright MEES 2009.