BAGHDAD (AP)--The Kurdish regional government's oil deals with foreign companies drew sharp criticism Thursday in the Iraqi parliament, with some lawmakers saying the contracts set a dangerous precedent for the future of Iraq's vast oil industry.
Kurdish authorities have signed more than a dozen contracts with foreign companies amid objections by Oil Ministry officials in Baghdad, who consider the deals illegal.
During the Thursday parliamentary session, Shiite lawmaker Waiel Abdul-Lateef described the unilateral Kurdish moves as a "dangerous issue" that could pave the way for other Iraqi provinces to sign contracts without the knowledge of the central government.
"Provincial officials now can sign oil contracts and nobody can stop them," he said.
Abdul-Lateef complained that the central government in Baghdad has no control over the Kurdistan region, which has enjoyed broad autonomy since 1991.
"According to what is going on, it seems that those people do not belong to Iraq," he said of the Kurds.
Kurdish lawmaker Saad Barazanji argued that the Kurdistan oil contracts are constitutional, accusing the oil minister, Hussein al-Shahristani, of failing to carry out his duties to stop the smuggling of Iraqi oil.
"Such initiatives by Kurdistan government should be encouraged - not fought. Such contracts serve the interests of Iraq," he said.
Another Kurdish lawmaker, Mahmoud Othman, called for negotiations between the Kurdish and Baghdad officials to solve the oil dispute.
Jabir Habib, a Shiite lawmaker, said that all oil exports should be managed through the central government and the Kurds should be exception.
"The oil minister is right in his stance," he added.
The Iraqi Cabinet approved a draft bill last February to regulate the country's oil industry and forwarded it to parliament. But parliament, citing legal technicalities, kicked it back to the Cabinet. The measure has been bogged down in negotiations ever since.
Last August, the Kurds enacted their own oil law to regulate the oil sector in the region, further angering the central government in Baghdad.
Most of Iraq's oil lies in the Shiite-controlled south and the Kurdish north.