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Kurdistan
Members of a KRG delegation headed by Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani meet with their Iraqi counterparts in Baghdad on June 23, 2020. Photo: Rudaw
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG)'s second biggest party has threatened to 'suspend' its participation in government and parliament unless an ongoing KRG delegation visit to Baghdad ends in a budget agreement, its co-leader has announced.
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) leader Lahur Talabany announced that his party's Leadership Council would later meet to discuss the KRG delegation's visit to Baghdad, where Erbil's share of Iraq's federal budget is on the table for discussion.
"If the KRG does not reach an agreement with Baghdad, if there is no transparency in the [KRG's] revenues and expenses, the PUK will not cave into the decision of cutting salaries," Talabany announced on Twitter around noon on Tuesday.
"Suspending participation in the parliament and government as well as calling for early election will be one of our choices," Talabany said.
A high-ranking KRG delegation led by Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani headed to Baghdad on Tuesday to reach an oil, budget and domestic revenues agreement with the central government.
To resolve the outstanding issues between Erbil and Baghdad, President of the Kurdistan Region Nechirvan Barzani visited Baghdad over the weekend to meet with Iraqi officials and Shiite political leaders, with the ongoing economic crisis and relations between the two governments on the agenda.
Under the premiership of Adil Abdul-Mahdi, Iraq's central government halted budget transfers to the KRG at the start of this year, accusing Erbil of failing to send oil in exchange for its share of the federal budget – an arrangement agreed in December.
"In this round of talks, a number of subjects will be discussed, first and foremost the matter of oil, which has become the center of all issues, followed by budget, the Region's border crossings' revenues, and domestic revenues," Jamal Kochar, head of the Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU) bloc in the Iraqi parliament told Rudaw on Tuesday.
Talabany's tweet came two days after the KRG announced plans to reduce salaries and allowances of higher-earning government employees.
Employees whose salaries are under the 300,000 Iraqi dinars ($251) per month mark will be unaffected, while those above the mark will see their paychecks cut by 21 percent, the KRG said in an official statement following a cabinet meeting led by Prime Minister Masrour Barzani. The salaries of senior KRG employees will be reduced by 50 percent.
According to the KRG statement, the measure is only "temporary", affecting salaries for the month of June, with hopes that negotiations with Baghdad would result in an agreement to allow resumption of full payment of public workers' salaries.
A Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) MP on Monday strongly criticized the PUK's resistive stance to the KDP-led government's action, accusing the party of having "double-standards."
Peshawa Hawramani said in a Facebook post that all the parties in government agreed to the salary cut decision, including the PUK's ministers and the deputy prime minister.
The PUK co-leader Talabany's came hours after the PUK politburo issued a statement in support of the government's plan - a statement subsequently taken down from the party's official PUKmedia news site.
The PUK holds six ministerial positions, as well as the deputy prime minister post, in the KRG. The party holds 21 seats in the parliament.
This is a developing story...
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) leader Lahur Talabany announced that his party's Leadership Council would later meet to discuss the KRG delegation's visit to Baghdad, where Erbil's share of Iraq's federal budget is on the table for discussion.
"If the KRG does not reach an agreement with Baghdad, if there is no transparency in the [KRG's] revenues and expenses, the PUK will not cave into the decision of cutting salaries," Talabany announced on Twitter around noon on Tuesday.
"Suspending participation in the parliament and government as well as calling for early election will be one of our choices," Talabany said.
A high-ranking KRG delegation led by Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani headed to Baghdad on Tuesday to reach an oil, budget and domestic revenues agreement with the central government.
To resolve the outstanding issues between Erbil and Baghdad, President of the Kurdistan Region Nechirvan Barzani visited Baghdad over the weekend to meet with Iraqi officials and Shiite political leaders, with the ongoing economic crisis and relations between the two governments on the agenda.
Under the premiership of Adil Abdul-Mahdi, Iraq's central government halted budget transfers to the KRG at the start of this year, accusing Erbil of failing to send oil in exchange for its share of the federal budget – an arrangement agreed in December.
"In this round of talks, a number of subjects will be discussed, first and foremost the matter of oil, which has become the center of all issues, followed by budget, the Region's border crossings' revenues, and domestic revenues," Jamal Kochar, head of the Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU) bloc in the Iraqi parliament told Rudaw on Tuesday.
Talabany's tweet came two days after the KRG announced plans to reduce salaries and allowances of higher-earning government employees.
Employees whose salaries are under the 300,000 Iraqi dinars ($251) per month mark will be unaffected, while those above the mark will see their paychecks cut by 21 percent, the KRG said in an official statement following a cabinet meeting led by Prime Minister Masrour Barzani. The salaries of senior KRG employees will be reduced by 50 percent.
According to the KRG statement, the measure is only "temporary", affecting salaries for the month of June, with hopes that negotiations with Baghdad would result in an agreement to allow resumption of full payment of public workers' salaries.
A Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) MP on Monday strongly criticized the PUK's resistive stance to the KDP-led government's action, accusing the party of having "double-standards."
Peshawa Hawramani said in a Facebook post that all the parties in government agreed to the salary cut decision, including the PUK's ministers and the deputy prime minister.
The PUK co-leader Talabany's came hours after the PUK politburo issued a statement in support of the government's plan - a statement subsequently taken down from the party's official PUKmedia news site.
The PUK holds six ministerial positions, as well as the deputy prime minister post, in the KRG. The party holds 21 seats in the parliament.
This is a developing story...
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