SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani urged the international community to grant more powers to UNAMI to mediate between the federal government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in disputes over issues between both sides.
Barzani has sent a formal letter to the U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres and members of the U.N. Security Council, the Region’s presidency said on Monday.
He called on the members of the U.N. Security Council to grant the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) “additional powers to mediate between Iraq’s Federal Government and KRG in the disputes over pending issues including the implementation of the Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution, oil related disagreements and national revenues”.
He also urged the U.N. security council to support the implementation of a recent agreement between Baghdad and Erbil on the federal budget for 2021 as well as the ongoing talks on the other pending issues.
On March 31, the Iraqi parliament approved the federal budget of 130 trillion Iraqi dinars ($89.65 billion) as the country wrestles with an economic and financial crisis due to low crude prices.
After months of wrangling, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the central government reached an agreement on thorny issues, including oil and non-oil revenues.
Under the 2021 budget law, the Kurdistan Region will be committed to produce 460,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd).
After deducting expenses for production operations in the Region, transport of oil and the domestic consumption of crude oil, the KRG must hand over to Baghdad revenues generated from regional oil exports of 250,000 bpd, according to Iraq’s SOMO pricing, as well as 50 percent of non-oil revenue.
The Kurdistan Region, in return, will receive its share of the budget, which is set at 13.9%.
The Region’s president urged the U.N. to grant UNAMI “additional authorities to provide humanitarian assistance to the refugees and the internally displaced people hosted in camps in the Kurdistan Region”, according to the presidency.
The Kurdistan Region hosts 928,553 internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees, according to the KRG Joint Crisis Coordination Center.
