Baghdad says Turkey has ‘not implemented’ water release deal despite earlier announcements

BAGHDAD — Iraq’s Minister of Water Resources, Aoun Dhiab Abdullah, said water inflows from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers remain below agreed levels, contradicting earlier claims by parliament leadership that Turkey had begun increasing releases.

In comments published by Iraq’s state-run newspaper, Abdullah said combined inflows from the two rivers currently total just 353 cubic meters per second—well short of the 600 cubic meters per second Iraq needs. “Iraq recently reached an agreement with Turkey to raise the water releases to 420 cubic meters per second for the months of July and August,” he said. “However, Turkey has not implemented the agreement so far.”

His remarks directly challenge statements made by Parliament Speaker Mahmoud Al-Mashhadani, who said on July 1 that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had agreed to the increase beginning July 2. A follow-up statement from Al-Mashhadani’s office said Turkish Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş confirmed the flow had already started.

Abdullah acknowledged a slight improvement in inflows from Turkey on the Tigris River—from 114 to 212 cubic meters per second—but said it remained below necessary levels. He also noted that while 370 cubic meters per second are currently flowing from Turkey into Syria via the Euphrates, only 141 cubic meters are reaching Iraq. That figure falls well below Iraq’s expected share of 58 percent of Turkey’s Euphrates discharge, after accounting for transit through Syrian territory.

He added that Iraq is depending heavily on its own water reserves, discharging about 700 cubic meters per second from its dams to meet drinking water needs, support irrigation, and maintain river flow. Abdullah cited low reservoir levels across Turkey, Iran, Syria, and Iraq, along with Turkey’s reliance on river flows for hydropower, as contributing factors to the shortfall.