SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Iraq’s federal court rejected a lawsuit against the Kurdistan Region on Monday.
The lawsuit was filed against allocating 200 billion Iraqi Dinars monthly share of the Kurdistan Region which Baghdad provides.
In 2021 Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi agreed to transfer 200 billion dinars per month to the Kurdistan Region following a deal with the Kurdish officials, however, it does not count as a budget but a share.
The share aims at to be used to pay the salaries of public servants in the Kurdistan Region.
The 200 billion share has faced interruption recently when in February Iraq’s federal court deemed the Region’s oil and gas law unconstitutional and demanded the Kurdish officials hand over the Kurdistan Region’s crude supplies.
For that reason on June 18, Iraqi finance minister Ali Allawi said, “the federal court decision prevents the Iraqi government to allocate 200 billion dinars monthly share”.
“The 2021 deal which was made with Kadhimi is only valid if Erbil sends the equivalent money from its exported oil revenue, but the deal has not been executed, instead a temporary agreement made that the Region receives 200 billion dinars share monthly, but it will not further continue,” Allawi said.
“My duty is the execution of law not a violation of it” Allawi added.
The oil ministry in Baghdad has since made fresh attempts to control revenue from the Kurdistan region, including summoning seven firms operating there to a commercial court on May 19. The firms were Addax, DNO, Genel, Gulf Keystone, HKN, Shamaran, and WesternZagros.
The federal court’s ruling gives the oil ministry in Baghdad the authority to manage oil and gas fields in Kurdistan. And it challenges the contracts that the region has made with the international oil firms, however, the officials in the Kurdistan region have repeatedly refused to abide it.
