SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani said on Sunday that the Region is ready to resolve all issues with Baghdad including oil, after the Iraqi parliament approved a loan bill last week.
Senior Kurdish officials including Barzani, Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani and Kurdistan Parliament Speaker Rewaz Fayaq met to discuss the fiscal deficit financing law adopted by the Iraqi parliament without Kurds’ consent.
The Region’s president said the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) ninth cabinet had expressed readiness to resolve all issues with Baghdad.
“The Kurdistan Region is ready to reach an agreement with the federal government on oil and all other issues,” Barzani said in a press conference following the meeting.
“The loan law was to punish the people of the Kurdistan Region,” he added.
The Iraqi parliament voted early on Thursday to approve the fiscal deficit financing bill, which allows the federal government to borrow 12 trillion Iraqi dinars ($10 billion) in internal and external loans in order to pay salaries of public servants. The loan was decreased from 42 trillion Iraqi dinars.
Kurdish lawmakers walked out of the session due to their concern about the Kurdistan Region’s share set in the fiscal deficit financing bill.
The law commits the Kurdistan Region to hand over non-oil revenues and an amount of oil that SOMO indicates to the federal government in exchange for an amount of money as payment for the Region’s public servants.
Barzani also called on the United Nations to play a role in resolving the issues between the KRG and the federal government.
