The much-vaunted deal involving the transfer of oil from the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan in Iraq’s north in exchange for budget disbursements from the federal government is in Baghdad in a lot of trouble for a lot of reasons. Not only are both sides of the country in the midst of enormous domestic political upheaval but also both find themselves in a tug of war between disparate foreign powers, each looking for a piece of the enormous oil and gas resources spread across the region. In fact, it will be Russia, China, and Iran that will decide whether the oil-for-budget-payments deal goes ahead. Just a month or so ago, there was the usual fanfare of optimistic comments that accompanies the announcement of all resumptions of the oil-for-budget-payments deal. The longstanding framework for this was the deal struck between the two sides in November 2014 in which the government of […]