The Deputy Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Region Qubad Talabani said Erbil needs $100 million per month to continue the fight against Islamic State (ISIS). "We need direct budgetary support," said Talabani while speaking at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracy think-tank in Washington. "We have absolutely no problems with any conditions that [would] be placed on financial assistance given to us." The fall in the world price of oil and the ongoing fight against ISIS has strained the Kurdistan Region financially, lack of revenue has seen the Kurdish Psehmerga remain unpaid for three months now. This economic crisis, Talabani said, has made the Kurdistan Region one of the "most vulnerable entities in the coalition." Attending the conference with Talabani was the Kurdistan Regional Governments' (KRG) Interior Minister Karim Sinjari who said that the lack of pay has seen a tiny number of desertions, one percent. However Sinjari warned that this would rise if they remain unpaid. Sinjari also said that the Peshmerga will participate in an offensive to retake Mosul from ISIS but would not enter the city itself in order "to avoid an Arab-Kurdish conflict." The spokesman for the US-led coalition against ISIS, Col. Steve Warren, spoke to Pentagon reporters via video from Baghdad. Warren said that despite the economical difficulties they face the Peshmerga "continues to fight and win."
