Kurdistan Region demands seven months’ salary from Baghdad and suggests extending the oil agreement: unless there are objections.
The Kurdistan Regional Government announced on Wednesday that it will demand the next federal government fund the salaries of seven months that have not been paid to public sector employees and workers in the region over the past three years, while expecting an extension of the agreement concluded between Erbil and Baghdad regarding Kurdistan’s oil exports.
This came in a press conference held by the spokesman for the regional government, Peshwa Hawrami, following a session of the Kurdistan Council of Ministers, during which he expressed his concern about the continued targeting of Kurds in the Syrian city of Aleppo by government forces.
Hormani said at the conference, “After the formation of the new Iraqi government, the Kurdistan Regional Government will hold talks with officials in Baghdad regarding the issue of Kurdistan’s share of the federal budget,” adding that “the federal government has not funded the salaries of employees in the Kurdistan Region for 7 months during the past three years, and we will not give them up, and we will demand them all.”
He added, “We will not discuss the issue of salaries with the next federal government again, but we will talk about the region’s share of the budget,” noting that “according to the general population census, the Kurdistan Region’s share of the Iraqi federal budget is 14%, but so far what has been given to Kurdistan has been much less than its legal and constitutional rights.”
The speaker referred to the oil agreement concluded between Erbil and Baghdad, as a result of which the Kurdistan Region’s oil exports were resumed through the Turkish port of Ceyhan in September of last year.
Horamani said, “The agreement between the Kurdistan Region and the federal government was originally intended for a period of three months, and if no party objects to that agreement, it will be renewed automatically.”
Regarding the attack that targeted the Kormor gas field in Sulaymaniyah last year, the spokesman said, “We did not reach a conclusion that we would hand over an accused person for the drone attacks,” stressing that “there was a committee made up of the Iraqi government and the regional government, during which several meetings were held, and several names were mentioned, but they were not arrested.”
He continued, saying, “It is clear that the attacks originated from territories under the control of the federal government, and the accused and suspected individuals have not only not been arrested, but some of them even appeared on social media days ago boasting about their inability to apprehend them,” noting that “the guarantees previously given to us have still been repeated, and yet they have launched the attacks again.”
Regarding the escalation between the United States and Iran, Hormani said that the Kurdistan Regional Government is not biased towards any party in regional conflicts, and that no neighboring country has been allowed to be attacked from their territory. He emphasized, “We want to protect our citizens, and we demand protection for the rest of the people as well.”
Shafaq.com