SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Iraqi Finance Minister Ali Allawi said Baghdad and Erbil had reached an agreement over the federal budget for 2021, amid ongoing talks on other suspending issues.
Allawi said in an interview with al-Arabiya on Saturday that the federal government and a delegation from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) continued to discuss the Kurdistan Region’s financial entitlements for 2020.
“We have reached an agreement with the Kurdistan Region on the federal budget of Iraq for 2021,” Kadhimi said.
The KRG delegation led by Deputy Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi has been in Baghdad since December 9 in an effort to reach a final agreement over their suspending issues.
During a televised interview with Dijla channel broadcast on Friday, Talabani said he was “optimistic” that the KRG would reach a deal with Baghdad over the Region’s rights and financial entitlements.
The Kurdish official further said the upcoming election scheduled for June 2021 has made an “unhealthy political situation” in Iraq.
“There is political pressure on all parties. The process of negotiations with Baghdad to resolve all the issues is not easy,” Talabani added.
Talabani added that the KRG is ready to abide by the fiscal deficit financing law, adopted by the Iraqi Council of Representatives last month, without Kurds’ consent.
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.
