ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has told a group of Kurdish lawmakers in Baghdad to introduce their candidates for ministrial posts in his new cabinet which according to him will be “meritocratic” and bring “fundamental changes” to government practices.
“The Prime Minister said both Kurdistan region and Iraq were in the same boat and in the absence of real change and reform, the boat would go down for both of them,” said Kurdish lawmaker, Ahmed Haji Rashid, who met with the Iraqi Premier on Sunday along with his fellow Kurdish lawmakers in the Iraqi parliament.
“He said he would write a letter to the Kurdish leadership and ask them to introduce their minister candidates for his new cabinet and stressed that there would be a complete makeover,” Rashid told Rudaw.
The Kurdish President Masoud Barzani will also visit Baghdad ahead of the formation of the new government, according to Abadi, to discuss pending issues between Baghdad and Erbil.
Less than a year after he took office, the Iraqi Premier introduced a reform plan, which would over the following months, see to a reduction of government ministries and their expenses while state revenues fell after the dramatic drop of oil prices.
Abadi also removed dozens of other government positions to meet the 2015 budget, which was considerably smaller than previous years’.
The lawmakers who took part in the meeting with Abadi on Sunday told Rudaw he had already agreed to the 20 percent Kurdish share of cabinet posts, which was put forward as a precondition by Erbil to support Abadi’s new 20-ministery-small cabinet.
The Prime Minister has told the MPs that the Baghdad-Erbil row could be resolved if the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) agreed to sell its crude oil through Iraqi state SOMO company and place the returns from the Kurdish border customs under Iraqi supervision.
“He also said the number and size of wages should be revised before any agreement between the two would realize,” according to Rashid.
It seems increasingly unlikely, however, for the KRG to go along with Abadi’s terms which resonate with those suggested by former Iraqi PM Nuri Maliki who also initiated the current suspension of Kurdish budget share before he left office in 2014.
With the oil revenues from Kurdish controlled fields, including from Kirkuk’s vast oil wells, the KRG managed to pay government salaries in January this year, although with substantial cuts.
Erbil has announced it will be able to pay February’s wages as planned despite stoppage of oil export earlier in February, according to the Kurdish Ministry of Finances.
With over 650,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) the Kurdistan Region seems to have found a way to finance its expenses and pursue its quest for more self-rule as Erbil has announced it will prepare to hold a referendum on full independence.
