DUBAI, March 18. /TASS/. The authorities of the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan will not impede oil exports to Turkey and will fully support them, Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq Masrour Barzani stated.

"Given the extraordinary circumstances facing the country, and the responsibility we all share to get through this difficult chapter, we have decided to allow oil to flow through the Kurdistan Region’s pipeline as soon as possible," he wrote on his X page.

Iraqi Oil Minister Hayan Abdel-Ghani said earlier that the country’s authorities intended to start oil supplies from Iraqi Kurdistan to Turkey as early as March 18. Prior to this, Iraqi central authorities threatened Kurdistan that if the region’s leadership did not change its position and continued to impede oil exports to Turkey, they would be forced to take legal action.

On March 3, Shafaq News reported that oil exports from Iraqi Kurdistan through the Turkish port of Ceyhan had been temporarily suspended after several oil companies put on hold operations at several fields in the region. Earlier, the government of Iraqi Kurdistan blamed the Iraqi central authorities for failing to prevent attacks on oil facilities in the country.