KRG leading parties meet as tensions mount across Kurdistan Region

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Delegations from the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) three largest parties met in Erbil on Tuesday to discuss negotiations with Baghdad over the Region’s withheld share of the federal budget. The talks come amidst days of unrest in the Kurdistan Region, with at least eight dead in clashes over the last two days.

Representatives discussed “sending a delegation to Baghdad for talks with the federal government to reach an agreement with Iraq’s government and sectors to resolve issues, especially the issues of rights and financial entitlements of the KRG and stabilizing them in Iraq’s 2021 budget bill,” read a joint statement from the parties released on Tuesday following the meeting. 

The meeting, chaired by Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani, was attended by Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani,  as well as party delegations led by the Kurdistan Democratic Party’s (KDP) Hoshyar Zebari, Patriotic Union of Kurdistan’s (PUK) Bafel Talabani, and the Change Movement’s (Gorran) Omer Said Ali.

The meeting participants discussed “taking necessary steps to ensure providing the monthly salaries of civil servants,” according to the statement.

The KRG is under intense economic and monetary pressure, mostly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a drop in oil prices, lingering disagreements between Baghdad and Erbil and chronic economic mismanagement. 

Erbil relies heavily on Baghdad to pay its civil servants. Baghdad refused to send the Kurdistan Region its budget share upon the passing of a controversial fiscal deficit bill last month. Funds for several prior months in 2020 have also not been sent to the KRG amid a prolonged oil-for-budget dispute. Kurdistan Region civil servants have gone unpaid for much of this year amid the dispute.
 
Protests prompted by the salary delays have swept across Sulaimani and Halabja provinces, as well as the Garmiyan administration. Many of those protesting are government employees and unemployed youth.

At least seven protesters and one KDP Peshmerga fighter have been reported killed in clashes, and political party and governmental offices have been targeted with arson.

A crisis cell in Sulaimani has ordered a 24-hour traffic ban between Sulaimani and Halabja provinces, as well as Raparin and Garmiyan administrations, starting from midnight, according to official PUK media.

"Civil demonstrations are free from the tensions and attacks on official institutions and the property of their citizens," read the joint statement. The three parties reaffirmed their commitments to take responsibility to help the people of the Kurdistan Region overcome this “undesired” situation for the common good.

In a separate meeting between the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Economy on Tuesday, the KRG's finance ministry sent an official letter to Baghdad saying it would abide by the fiscal deficit bill obliging Erbil to hand over an unspecified amount of oil in return for federal revenues.

Updated 9:36am on December 9, 2020