ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Head of the Badr parliamentary bloc Mehdi Taqi Amerli on Wednesday rejected any diplomatic or trade relations with Turkey, citing the latter’s upstream damming and its deleterious influence on the water scarcity crisis in Iraq, threatening to take unprecedented steps to demand Ankara increase the water flow.

“There can be no political or economic relations with Turkey at the expense of the Iraqi people’s interests,” Amerli said in a statement, noting that “Turkey’s actions in drying up the rivers constitute an explicit hostile act against Iraq and its people.”

The politician affirmed that his party “will not stand idly in the face of this existential threat,” noting that if negotiation efforts to secure the country's “rightful share of water” fail to bear fruit, the bloc will demand Iraq to “cut all economic ties with Turkey.”

Amerli asserted that he is giving Baghdad and Ankara “a few days’ deadline” to reach an agreement and ensure the country’s share of water, or his bloc “will take measures that no one may have anticipated.”

Last week, Iraq’s agricultural ministry stated that the country’s water reserves have dropped to dangerous levels, warning that rationing has become essential to protect water security.

The Green Iraq Observatory in early September warned that Turkey’s dam network has drastically reduced Iraq’s water inflows, intensifying an already severe crisis. Turkey has built about 20 dams over four decades, holding roughly 80 billion cubic meters of water, eight times the capacity of Iraq’s Mosul Dam.

As a result, Iraq now receives only 35 percent of its fair share of water, according to the environmental watchdog. The Tigris delivers about 200 cubic meters per second (instead of the required 450), and the Euphrates about 151 cubic meters per second (instead of 350).

In July, Turkey briefly increased river flow to 420 cubic meters per second to help Iraq’s dams, but experts said this was merely a temporary relief measure, not an enduring solution.