Iraq’s Allawi is committed to Kurdish share of federal budget: MP

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iraq’s Prime Minister-designate Mohammed Tawfik Allawi says he is committed to sending the Kurdistan Region its share of the federal budget as agreed by the outgoing administration, a Kurdish MP and negotiator told Rudaw on Thursday.

Allawi has called on parliament to hold an extraordinary session on Monday to approve Iraq’s “first independent cabinet”.

Hoshyar Zebari, a senior Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) official, led a Kurdish delegation to Baghdad on Wednesday to meet with Allawi. 

Kurdish parties in the Baghdad parliament want to nominate their own candidates to sit on Allawi’s cabinet to guarantee Kurdish representation at a national level. 

They are also keen to preserve the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG)’s share of the federal budget and to resolve territorial disputes which threaten national security. 

Harem Kamal Agha, a Kurdish MP in Iraqi parliament and member of the Kurdish delegation, spoke to Rudaw TV on Thursday and described the meeting with Allawi.

“He showed his commitment to all the financial entitlements of the Kurdistan Regional Government in the past budget and the budget of this year,” Agha said. 

“Yesterday, we listened to his cabinet manifesto for resolving existing issues. He himself pointed out the Kurdistan Regional Government’s financial entitlements as constitutional, legal, and, in his words, moral, that he would never abandon this,” he added.

Baghdad cut the autonomous Kurdish region’s budget share from 17 percent to zero in 2014 in response to the KRG’s independent oil sales. 

The resulting financial crisis was compounded by a drop in world oil prices and the costly war with the Islamic State group (ISIS).  

This remained the case until 2018 when former Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi provided the Region with a monthly payment of $266 million to cover public sector salaries. The KRG was also permitted to continue selling oil independently. 

Under the tenure of caretaker Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi, who is considered a friend of the Kurds, the KRG was granted a 12.6 percent share of the 2019 federal budget. This was conditional on the KRG delivering a quota of 250,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil to Iraq’s state oil marketing company (SOMO).

Although the KRG failed to comply with the oil quota, it still received its share of the budget, angering many Shiite leaders who accused Abdul-Mahdi of being too soft on the Kurds.

At the end of 2019, the KRG reached a new oil-for-budget deal with Baghdad along roughly the same lines and began meeting its quota. 

Allawi reassured the Kurdish delegation that the relationship would continue to improve under his new government, Agha told Rudaw. 

“He said that he would emphasize even more on the [constructive] approach that [caretaker PM] Mr. Adil Abdul-Mahdi followed with regards to the budget and other things,” he said.

Erbil-Baghdad relations have long been bedeviled by territorial disputes, which have left vast areas of ungoverned space open to jihadist infiltration. 

Parts of Kirkuk, Diyala, Saladin, and Nineveh are contested by the governments in Erbil and Baghdad. All of them have seen a spike in violence resulting from the failure of Iraqi and Kurdish forces to cooperate. 

Relations between the two hit their lowest ebb in October 2017 when an Iraqi offensive pushed the Kurdish Peshmerga out of the disputed territories.

Allawi told the Kurdish delegation he would prioritize security in the disputed territories, but did not hint at plans to allow the return of Peshmerga forces to these areas.

“He said he would work on full stability in Kirkuk, Mosul, and its surroundings, and other areas like Khanaqin,” Agha told Rudaw.

Since Allawi was tasked with forming a new government on February 1, he has insisted on the right to choose his own cabinet composed of independent, technocratic, and qualified individuals. He has resisted efforts by parliamentary blocs to impose partisan candidates.

Iraq’s Shiite, Sunni, and Kurdish components are concerned that a cabinet of independents could deprive their communities of a voice at the top table. 

“Like Kurds, most of other parties also are opposed [to Allawi selecting his ministers himself], but due to public dissatisfaction and mistrust [of the ruling class], some of them [parties] avoid starting a debate,” Agha said.

“Everyone is against this style because it is not based on constitutional texts, so we saw most of the political parties, the Sunnis, Kurds, [Nouri] al-Maliki, reservations on the side of Ammar al-Hakeem. Only the Sadrists and Fatih support it, but they also have reservations,” he added.

“They say because of the reality on the ground among the Iraqi public, especially in Baghdad, the center and south, this discontent by the people, the death of a lot of people among the security forces, protestors, they liken this phase as transitional to restore the prestige of the state and prepare for elections,” Agha said.

However, it is not “the right method” to pick Kurdish ministers on behalf of the Kurdistan Region without consultation, he argued.

“Kurds have not accepted this so far, although we believe we are part of the solution. In Saturday’s and future meetings, I believe we will make a final decision,” he added.

Although it is up to the Kurdish delegation to decide whether or not Kurds will participate in the next government, the Shiites and some Sunnis will likely approve Allawi’s new cabinet regardless of Kurdish opposition, Agha warned.

Kurdish parties currently hold three ministries in the federal government. According to members of the Kurdish delegation, Allawi is expected to return Kurdish ministers to these same posts. 

However, given his desire to offer a clean slate, it is not clear whether the same Kurdish ministers will remain in office after Monday.