U.S. Ultimatum Forced Iraq To Rekindle Kurdish Oil Exports

The U.S. has pressured Iraq to restart Kurdish oil exports via Turkey--and that pressure appears to be successful. The United States issued an ultimatum to Iraq, anonymous sources disclosed to Reuters on Friday. The ultimatum was simple: restart Kurdish oil exports through the shuttered pipeline--or else suffer the same fate as Iran with regards to US sanctions. On Monday, Iraq's oil minister said that oil flows from the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region would resume next week in what would be a rather abrupt end to a two-year stalemate over oil…