"We heard President Biden emphasizing that Erbil and Baghdad should resolve their issues through dialogue. Erbil and the [Kurdistan] Region are important for the US. The stability of the Region, Iraq and the region is important for America,” Safeen Dizayee, Head of KRG's Department of Foreign Affairs, told Rudaw’s Diyar Kurda.
Dizayee is among the KRG representatives in the Iraqi delegation currently in Washington DC.
On Monday, Biden received Sudani at the Oval Office in the presence of members of the press, then meeting behind closed doors later in the evening.
Dizayee said he attended most of the key meetings between the Iraqi and US officials, adding that some other KRG officials also attended meetings between Iraqi and American specialized committees, including those related to energy.
The KRG has failed to pay the salaries of its civil servants on time and in full for a decade due to a financial crisis which deteriorated when a ruling by a Paris-based arbitration court suspended its export of oil to the international markets a year ago. The Kurdish government now relies on local income and its controversial share of the federal budget.
The cash-strapped KRG has repeatedly accused Baghdad of not making regular payments of its share of the federal funds.
Baghdad recently decided to pay the salaries of KRG’s civil servants for the past few months after reaching an “appropriate” solution, according to the Kurdish Prime Minister Masrour Barzani.
Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani visited Baghdad earlier this month, meeting with the federal authorities and discussing Erbil-Baghdad issues.
"The Kurdistan Region President's visit to Baghdad, based on what I have heard from Sudani, shows that there are serious attempts to resolve these issues,” Dizayee said in Washington on Monday.
