Kurdish Civil Servants to Receive Eid Salaries from Baghdad

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The Iraqi government has agreed to pay part of its arrears to Erbil, enough to pay the salaries of civil servants for two months, a Kurdish MP in Baghdad said Monday.

"The Iraqi central government approved the salaries of the (Kurdistan) Region for the months of August and September before the holiday of Eid al-Adha," Arafat Karam said.

“This step by the central government is a sign of goodwill toward Kurdish demands," he added.

For several years, Erbil and Baghdad have been at loggerheads over key issues, most importantly Kurdistan’s share of the national budget, oil exports and the cnclave’s Peshmerga forces.

Tensions soared late last year, after the former Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, froze payments from the federal budget, pushing the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) toward drastic austerity measures, and hurting civil servants who have not received regular salaries since then.

According to Karam, the rest of the KRG's salaries are still subject to further negotiations between officials from Baghdad and Erbil.

The KRG says Baghdad owes $9 billion in salary arrears, which it must pay.

"The Kurdish delegation's visit to Baghdad gave top priority to the issue of salaries, and the rest of the issues will be resolved after Eid al-Adha, " the MP said.

A Kurdish delegation led by newly-appointed Iraqi Finance Minister Roj Nuri Shaways arrived in Baghdad on Sunday to meet with the new Iraqi premier, Haider al-Abadi, hoping to resolve the outstanding problems between the two sides.

Kurds have given a 90-day deadline to Abadi’s government to resolve the issues, warning they would otherwise take other measures, including a referendum on breaking away from Iraq.