KRG prime minister says Kurdistan will not give up ‘national demands’

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The Kurdistan Region is not only concerned with the debate over the federal budget in its deliberations with Baghdad, and will not give up its “national demands,” the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) said in a release on Sunday. 

KRG Prime Minister Masrour Barzani made the comments in Erbil in a meeting with the heads of Kurdistan Region political parties and members of the finance committee in the Iraqi parliament.

“The Prime Minister asserted that the problem of the people of Kurdistan is not merely about the budget [share] and salaries, but that we have a national question and national demands, and we will not relinquish our constitutional rights and demands,” read the statement. 

Barzani notified the heads of the Kurdish blocs of the progress of talks with the Iraqi government over the budget, disputed territories and other issues. The two disagree about oil sales and the KRG’s share of the federal budget, as well as the administration of the disputed Iraqi-Kurdish territories in the north of the country. 

“We hope, on the bases of the constitution, the issue are resolved in a manner that the principles of true partnership, balance, and consensus are taken into consideration,” the statement quoted the Kurdish prime minister as saying. 

The Kurdish blocs in the Iraqi parliament later met with Rewaz Faiaq, the Speaker of the Kurdistan Region’s parliament, on Sunday to discuss the Kurdistan Region’s budget share, among other matters. 

One of the sticking matters between the Kurdistan Region and the government of Iraq is independent oil sales of the former. According to Iraq’s 2019 budget law, the KRG is to handover 250,000 barrels of oil to Iraq’s State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO).

The revenue would go to the federal treasury. The KRG, however, has yet to handover a single barrel, while Baghdad has been sending the salaries of more than 600,000 public employees of the KRG. According to the budget bill, an amount equivalent to the 250,000 barrels per day of oil not handed over would be cut off from the KRG’s share.

In case of a failure to resolve the oil issue, the KRG might have to endure another financial crisis, like in 2014, when it could no longer pay its bloated, more than one million individual-strong public sector employees.

Regarding the disputed territories, Iraq retook them from the KRG in 2017 following the Kurdistan independence referendum. Since then, there has been an Islamic State (ISIS) resurgence in the areas. 

Currently, Baghdad and Erbil have two technical teams, one concerned with budget and oil matters, and the other concerned with the disputed territories and security cooperation, working on the outstanding issues between the two.

There is also a supreme committee, composed of the Iraqi and Kurdish prime ministers, to approve the agreements that the two committees reach.

A member of the Iraqi parliamentarian from the opposition Hikmah Front has said that Iraqi parliamentarians will soon reconsider agreements between the KRG and federal Iraqi government as KRG has shown “no good will” in keeping its side of the bargain with the Iraq. 

Many Kurds consider Iraqi’s current prime minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi as friendly to Kurds, as he has previously admitted that the Kurdish issue in Iraq is as old as Iraq itself.