Iraqi Kurdistan's natural resources minister said on Tuesday the region plans to continue oil exports and will be able to meet its allocated budget through independent oil shipments by the year-end.
Ashti Hawrami said the central government in Baghdad had withheld budget payments to the region so far this year and before was giving only around 10 percent instead of an agreed 17 percent.
"They pushed us to do this," Hawrami said at a London conference, referring to independent oil exports.
"We're going to create facts on the ground to have my 17 percent in my own hands," Hawrami said.
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