The Cabinet threw political weight behind the Southern Iraq Integrated Project, injecting momentum into negotiations over a massive infrastructure deal that is critical to Iraq’s production and export growth. Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abd al-Mahdi meets with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Baghdad on Jan. 9, 2019. (Photo credit: Office of the Prime Minister) Iraq’s Cabinet voted Tuesday to endorse further negotiations with ExxonMobil and PetroChina over a massive combination of oil and infrastructure projects that are key to increasing Iraq’s production and exports. The terms of the Southern Iraq Integrated Project (SIIP) have not been entirely finalized and no contract has been signed, according to multiple officials involved in the negotiations, but the Cabinet vote is a clear sign of political support for a deal that had lost momentum since Prime Minister Adil Adb al-Mahdi took office last fall.