ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani on Wednesday received a US delegation led by Riley Barnes, Senior Bureau Official for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL) at the US Department of State.

The delegation met with the prime minister after participating in the Kurdistan National Prayer Breakfast. They expressed their pleasure in participating in the event and underlined the "culture of peaceful coexistence and religious freedom" in the Kurdistan Region.

During the meeting, both sides stressed the necessity of resuming the Kurdistan Region's exports of oil "as soon as possible," as well as the necessity of speeding up the formation of the Region's tenth government cabinet, read a statement by the prime minister's office after the meeting.

Exports of the Kurdistan Region’s oil through the Turkish Ceyhan pipeline, where part of Kirkuk’s oil was also exported, were halted in March 2023 after Ankara lost a case against Baghdad in a Paris-based arbitration court. The Iraqi government accused Ankara of breaching a 1973 agreement by allowing Erbil to start selling oil independently of Baghdad.

The premier earlier in April discussed the "need and importance of resuming" the Region's oil exports with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a phone call, prior to which, Barzani held another phone call with US National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, during which they also stressed the importance of oil export resumptions "as soon as possible."

US President Donald Trump's administration has piled pressure on the Iraqi government to hasten the process of resuming the Region's oil, Reuters reported in February, citing two US administration officials.

During the Sulaimani Forum on April 16, the prime minister noted that Erbil, Baghdad, and Ankara have agreed to restart the process, but that the issue now is coming to an understanding with the international oil companies (IOCs) on setting a production cost.

The halt in exports has dealt a major blow to Iraq and the Kurdistan Region's economy, with well over $20 billion in lost revenue to date.