Damascus refuses to send a delegation to negotiate: a Syrian mandate for Iraq to discuss Syria’s water share with Turkey

The Iraqi Minister of Water Resources, Mahdi Rashid Al-Hamdani, revealed Tuesday, that Syria had delegated Iraq on its behalf to discuss with Turkey about its water quota, after negotiations between Moscow and Ankara reached a dead end.

Al-Hamdani said in a statement to Al-Iraqiya news channel, that the Syrian government will provide Iraq with an official letter through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “because of the insistence of the Turkish side in most of the negotiating sessions on water quotas on the presence of the Syrian side.”

Al-Hamdani considered that “this authorization will block the way for Turkey’s arguments, and we will reach understandings.”

Al-Hamdani pointed out that “the ministry’s actions were multiple during this short period of the government’s life, during which it was able to achieve more than one meeting at the technical level with the Turkish and Syrian sides.”

Al-Hamdani added that the Iranian side has not yet shown cooperation in achieving the meeting in order to discuss water quotas, and we are still waiting for it.

He explained that there are understandings with Turkey and a Turkish delegation will come to Iraq soon to discuss the details of the protocol related to the Tigris River.

He pointed out that the Iraqi government intends to establish a joint research center with Turkey, directing an invitation to the international community and organizations to participate in it, especially Syria and Iran.

On the eighth of this month, the Russian President’s special envoy to Syria, Alexander Lavrentiev, announced that talks were taking place between Moscow and Ankara to solve the water crisis in northeastern Syria.

Lavrentiev said, during a press conference held at the end of the 16th round of the Astana Conference, that “this issue is urgent and acute and has a humanitarian dimension, especially as it also concerns about four million civilians in Aleppo Governorate, in addition to the residents of Hasaka, who also suffer from a shortage of food and supplies.”​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​A​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​n electricity supply”.

It is noteworthy that Turkey and Syria concluded an agreement in 1987, stipulating that Syria would obtain at least 500 cubic meters per second of the waters of the Euphrates River, and Syria signed an agreement with Iraq in 1989, which stipulated that Baghdad’s share would be 58 percent. Of the total amount of water received from the Euphrates to Syria.