SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani met with Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) Co-leader Bafel Talabani in Erbil on Tuesday, stressing the importance of unity among the political parties.
Barzani and Talabani discussed the latest political developments in the Kurdistan Region and the implications of the coronavirus outbreak, particularly in the economic field and financial crisis which has created harsh conditions on the livelihood of people, the Region’s presidency said in a statement.
They also discussed issues between the Kurdistan Region and Baghdad as well as efforts to resolve them, the statement read.
Both sides stressed on the “need and importance of unity, cohesion and cooperation between the political parties in order to overcome the current crises and difficulties and to face challenges in this stage and the future”, the Region’s presidency said.
The Kurdistan Region is facing an economic crisis due to falling of oil prices and the coronavirus pandemic as well as a decision by the federal government, led by former prime minister Adil Abdul Mahdi, to cut off all budget transfers to the Kurdistan Region due to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) failure to export 250,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) through Baghdad.
In November 2019, Erbil and Baghdad reached an agreement to resolve their ongoing disagreement over oil, after Erbil agreed to export 250,000 bpd through Baghdad to Turkey’s Ceyhan port in exchange for the Region’s share of the federal budget.
Relations between Baghdad and Erbil eased after Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi took office in May. Kadhimi told KRG premier Masrour Barzani in a phone call in August that Baghdad would send 320 billion dinars to the Region as payment for employees until the end of the year.
But a loan law, adopted by the Iraqi Council of Representatives on Nov. 12, commits the KRG to hand over non-oil revenues and an amount of oil which SOMO indicates to the federal government in exchange for the Region’s share.
As a large portion of the Region’s revenue relies exclusively on oil exports, the KRG has not been able to pay salaries of October and November to its employees. The KRG has already cut off employees’ salaries for the months of April, May, June, July and August.
