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Iraq
Deputy Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Region Qubad Talabani speaks at a press conference in Baghdad on December 22, 2020. Photo: Rudaw
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Erbil and Baghdad have reached a deal on Iraq’s Federal Budget Bill for the year 2021 that serves the interests of the people of the Kurdistan Region, the Region’s deputy prime minister Qubad Talabani said on Tuesday night.
“Fortunately, as part of our visit, we were able to reach a deal with the federal government on the 2021 budget bill. We hope that this success leads to the passage of the bill by the Iraqi parliament,” Talabani told reporters in Baghdad.
Talabani has been leading a Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) delegation to Baghdad which has met with several officials from the federal government and political leaders in the last two weeks.
“This budget bill keeps the common interest of all Iraqi people, including the people of Kurdistan Region,” the deputy premier said.
Iraq's Council of Ministers voted to approve the Federal Budget Bill for 2021 in a meeting led by Iraqi prime minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi on Monday night.
The bill has received the approval of "the different political parties," Kadhimi said during a press conference in Baghdad.
The budget has been a point of contention between Erbil and Baghdad for several years, especially after the Kurdistan Region's decision to sell its oil through Turkey, and the Islamic State (ISIS) attack on Iraq in 2014.
Talabani said that the KRG’s share of the budget is the same as it was the previous year. In the 2019 budget law, the Kurdistan Region’s share was 12.67 percent. Baghdad applied the same law for 2020, after failure by Iraqi political parties to agree on a new budget bill.
“The Region’s share in the budget has been specified. It is clear,” he said, though he added the budget share is “less than what we expected and deserve.”
Both governments are struggling financially. The KRG has been failing to pay its civil servants on time and in full, while the Iraqi government has had to take out loans from its central bank to pay the salaries of its civil servants for the last three months of 2020.
The KRG has so far been deprived of its share of the loan money, Talabani said. “We hope to receive a response from the federal government about Kurdistan Region’s share in the loans law.”
On the continuing budget dispute between Erbil and Baghdad, Kadhimi said on Monday that "we are working on resolving our issue with the [Kurdistan] Region soon, God willing," adding that Kurds are also people of Iraq. "We will reach a deal."
In a phone call on Tuesday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Kurdistan Region prime minister Masrour Barzani discussed Erbil-Baghdad budget talks, among other topics.
The two “had a lengthy exchange about Erbil-Baghdad relations and the budget dispute in particular,” according to a readout from Barzani’s office. “In this regard, PM Barzani proposed that the United States and the United Nations join high-level talks to help advance a Constitutional settlement.”
Barzani “appreciated Secretary Pompeo’s call for a fair and equitable share of the federal budget for Iraq as a whole, including the Kurdistan Region,” according to the readout.
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