A long-simmering controversy over control of Iraq’s massive oil reserves flared into the open Friday as one of the country’s most powerful ministers threatened to take legal action against Iraqi Kurdistan, Turkey and any foreign companies that helped the Kurds export oil without permission from Baghdad. Iraqi Oil Minister Abdul Kareem Luaibi told reporters that Baghdad considered the Kurds to be trying to sell “smuggled” Iraqi oil and would sue both the Kurdish and Turkish governments if any planned export deals moved forward. Luaibi also threatened to blacklist Turkish companies from doing business in Iraq if they helped the Kurds move the oil out of their semi-autonomous region in northern Iraq. “If Turkey allows the export of oil from the region, it is meddling in the division of Iraq, and this is a red line,” Luaibi told reporters in Baghdad. The harsh words from Luaibi come as the security […]