Iraq
Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani speaking to reporters in Baghdad on January 14, 2024. Photo: Rudaw
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani on Sunday said that Erbil and Baghdad are on the right path to solving the problem of the Kurdistan Region’s stalled oil exports.
Barzani spoke to reporters following a trip to Baghdad where he met with senior Iraqi government and political leaders, including Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani and Oil Minister Hayyan Abdul Ghani.
“The matter of oil exports was one of the topics we discussed with the oil minister and the prime minister. We hope that this matter be solved in a short while,” Barzani told Rudaw’s Halkawt Aziz.
“I cannot say when, but I think we are on the right path to solve the issue,” he added.
Export of Kurdistan Region’s oil through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline has been halted since March 23 when a Paris-based arbitration court ruled in favor of Baghdad against Ankara, saying Turkey had breached a 1973 agreement by allowing Erbil to begin independent oil exports in 2014.
Delegations from Erbil have paid numerous visits to Baghdad to discuss resuming the exports, the halt of which have inflicted damages to the cash-strapped Region’s fragile economy. In November, President Barzani said the problem between Baghdad and Erbil was more “technical rather than political.”
Drone strikes violate Iraqi sovereignty
President Barzani also talked about the recent drone strikes that have targeted United States forces and a Peshmerga base in the Kurdistan Region.
“The drone strikes targeting Kurdistan Region are a violation of Iraqi sovereignty and are undermining the authority of the prime minister as the commander-in-chief of armed forces,” President Nechirvan Barzani said.
“The violation of Iraq’s sovereignty by some armed groups is the violation of the sovereignty of all of Iraq, not only Kurdistan Region, and these [attacks] must stop,” he added.
Bases housing US forces across Iraq and the Kurdistan Region have been the targets of dozens of drone attacks since October 17 in response to American support for Israel in its war against Palestinian Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a network of shadow Iraqi militia groups affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), has claimed responsibility for most of the attacks.
In his speech during a ceremony commemorating Shiite cleric Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim on Saturday, Barzani said that the drone strikes have “inflicted a lot of damage to the security and the lives of the citizens of the Kurdistan Region,” adding that the attacks “have spread fear and disorder across Iraqi markets and allowed Islamic State (ISIS) militants the opportunity to intensify their attacks.”
Iran-aligned militias have struck bases of the coalition in Iraq and Syria with rockets and drones over 100 times since mid-October, in retaliation to Washington’s support for Israel in its war against the Gaza Strip.
US forces have responded with several retaliatory strikes, targeting militia groups they blame for the attacks. The Iraqi government has strongly condemned American retaliatory attacks, which have killed at least 11, calling them a “violation” of its sovereignty as it targets state security forces.
A military base housing international troops near Erbil’s airport on the northwestern edge of the city and Harir airbase some 50 kilometers to the northeast are frequent targets.
Around 2,500 American troops in Iraq and 900 in Syria are leading an international coalition through Operation Inherent Resolve that has assisted Kurdish, Iraqi, and local Syrian forces in the fight against ISIS, which once held swathes of land in Iraq and Syria but was declared territorially defeated in 2017 and 2019 respectively.
In a meeting with coalition commander Major General Joel B. Vowell on Tuesday, Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani stressed the importance of the coalition continuing to pursue its mission in the country.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has said it holds the federal government responsible for the “cowardly attacks” conducted by government-linked “outlaw” groups.
KRG civil servant salaries
Regarding the salaries of the Kurdistan Region civil servants' salaries, Barzani said “We think that the Kurdistan Regional Government has fulfilled all its obligations [towards Baghdad]. The Kurdistan Region must be treated the same as the rest of the Iraqi provinces on the issue of salaries.”
Barzani stressed that the issue of the salaries must not be “politicized or used as pressure card” against the Kurdistan Region.
The federal government on Sunday decided to allocate 618 billion dinars to cover for the salaries of the Kurdistan Region’s civil servants. The payment is Erbil’s share in the 2024 budget.
Barzani welcomed the decision by Baghdad and hoped it would put an end to the Region’s decade-long salary issue.
“We hope that today’s decision [by the federal government] will be a start to end that [salary] issue,” Barzani said.
The KRG has said that it needs over 900 billion dinars monthly to cover its payroll, but with its oil exports through Turkey halted since March, it does not have the funds. In September, Erbil and Baghdad struck a deal that saw the federal government agree to loan the KRG 2.1 trillion Iraqi dinars in three 700-billion-dinar instalments, to cover three months of the wages of the civil servants.
The frequent delay in paying salaries, which has been an issue for the cash-strapped KRG for nearly a decade, has made life difficult for civil servants, many of whom have no other source of income.
The two governments have since been in talks to amend the federal budget in order to guarantee the payments to cover the salaries. A KRG delegation headed by Finance Minister Awat Shekh Janab travelled to Baghdad last week and government said the talks were “positive” and Erbil has “fulfilled” its obligations.
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