The Ministry of Water Resources announced today, Sunday, an agreement with the Turkish and Iranian sides to hold a specialized technical meeting in the near future to discuss the water file, pointing out that the two parties interacted with Iraq’s demands, in which it called for going towards permanent agreements and turning the page on interim agreements.

“We held constructive discussions with the Iranian delegation, headed by the Minister of Energy and the advanced staff in the Ministry, on the sidelines of the third Baghdad Water Conference, which dealt with all outstanding issues, and we felt an interaction with Iraq’s demands,” said Undersecretary of the Ministry of Water Resources Raed Al-Jashami to the official News Agency.

He added that “a high-level Turkish technical delegation also participated in the conference and visited the ministry’s sites in the Euphrates Basin, and was briefed on the effects of water scarcity and understanding of Iraq’s need in light of the continued scarcity,” pointing to “the interaction of the two sides with the size of the challenge that Iraq is going through.”

He pointed out that “the technical meetings that took place with the delegations of the two countries paved the way for an agreement to hold a specialized technical meeting in the near future to discuss the water file in all its details, and Iraq informed the downstream countries of the need to go towards permanent agreements and turn the page on the interim agreements that took place in the past because the water situation has changed.”

The Prime Minister, Muhammad Shia’ al-Sudani, confirmed Yesterday, the government’s intention to go to desalination of sea water, while stressing that the decline in water levels of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers calls for urgent international intervention.

Source: National Iraqi News Agency