ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani on Thursday will lead a top delegation from his cabinet to Baghdad to discuss outstanding issues with the Iraqi government, especially the Region’s disputed share of the federal budget, according to Kurdish officials.
PM Barzani said during a ceremony in Erbil that he plans to head a top delegation to Baghdad on Thursday.
“We are going to visit Baghdad to resolve our issues peacefully. Our patience does mean the weakness of the Kurdistan Region but is a testament to our commitment to preventing the issues from being diverted… We want to guarantee the achievement of all the financial entitlements and constitutional rights of the people of Kurdistan,” he said.
Peshawa Hawramani, spokesperson for the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), said in a post on X (formerly Twitter) that the Kurdish delegation will include KRG Deputy PM Qubad Talabani as well.
“The Kurdistan Region intends to reach a final agreement with the federal government so that the people of the Kurdistan Region can receive their financial entitlements and salaries as do [the people] of other parts of Iraq,” said the spokesperson.
Meetings between delegations from the KRG and the federal government have been ongoing over the past months, aimed at resolving lingering disputes over the Region’s share in the federal budget. Earlier this month, Baghdad decided to send 500 billion Iraqi dinars $320 million) for the salaries of the public servants of the Region as loans. It is not clear whether the Kurdish government will accept the offer or not.
The KRG has said that this amount is insufficient as the Region needs 940 billion Iraqi dinars ($602 million) to pay its civil servants.
The Kurdish government has failed to pay its civil servants on time and in full for nearly a decade due to the financial crisis. The public employees are yet to receive their July salaries.
The Iraqi parliament in June passed its highly contentious budget bill for the years 2023, 2024, and 2025, of which the Kurdistan Region’s share is 12.6 percent. But this did not resolve the budgetary issue between both governments.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani claimed on Monday that there is no such thing in the Iraqi federal budget which asks the federal government to provide the salaries of the Kurdistan Region’s public servants.
Turkey suspended the flow of the Kurdish crude oil to its Ceyhan port in March following a ruling from a Paris-based arbitration court, causing the KRG more than five million loss in oil revenues.
The oil export has yet to be resumed despite several talks between Erbil, Baghdad and Turkey.
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