Nechirvan Barzani to Baghdad on “last chance” visit to end the suffering of the Kurdistan Region
Shafaq News / The President of the Kurdistan Region Nechirvan Barzani is scheduled to head to the Iraqi capital Baghdad on Sunday to participate in the “state administration” meeting of the same day, carrying with him the files of salaries of the region’s employees, the budget, oil exports, upcoming elections and others, according to observers, who expected that this visit may be the “last chance” for Baghdad, and if permanent solutions to the outstanding issues are not reached, the Kurds may decide to withdraw from the Iraqi political process.
This is what the Kurdistan Democratic Party is waving in case of not responding to the demands of the Kurdistan Region, as the party member, Wafaa Mohammed, says that “the meeting that brought together the Kurdish blocs and representatives of the region in Baghdad today, included talking about the withdrawal of the Kurds from the political process in case Baghdad did not comply with the agreements concluded with the Kurdistan Region and does not send the budget quota and implement the agreed legal articles, namely Law 140, the legislation of the oil and gas law, stopping Arabization campaigns and sending military and health aid, etc..”
Mohammed explains to Shafaq News Agency that “if the Kurdish position is unified, the decision to withdraw is better than accepting the humiliation practiced by the federal government, and there will be full support for the international community for these positions, but I believe that there are veterans, leaders and senior politicians in the Shiite and Sunni component will reach a solution with the Kurdish component, because the withdrawal of the Kurds will affect the stability of Iraq, and this is what no one wants, and in the end the best option for the Kurdish component is to withdraw if Baghdad does not respond to the demands.”
Citizens in the Kurdistan Region live a semi-disabled life, due to the expansion of the general strike in government departments, schools, universities and traffic circles, especially in Sulaymaniyah, because they have not received salaries for months.
For years, the salary file in the Kurdistan Region has not been resolved, and remained suspended between tug-of-war with the federal government, and every year this controversy is renewed with the approval of the federal budget, which sets conditions on the region in exchange for receiving its share of it, most notably the delivery of oil imports, but two years ago, after the region stopped exporting oil through the Turkish port of Ceyhan, the federal government turned the salaries of employees into “an advances” provided to the region.
Last February, the Federal Supreme Court obliged the Baghdad government to pay the salaries of the employees of the Kurdistan Region directly, without sending them to the regional government, after months of delaying the delivery of salaries.
In this context, Kifah Mahmoud, a writer, political researcher and media adviser to Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani, says that “the share of the Kurdistan region of the budget did not reach the whole region, and this is considered stupidity of the people of the region, in light of the presence of political pressure to confuse the region and dwarf its powers, and this contraves the constitution.”
Mahmoud added to Shafaq News Agency, “There is a major imbalance in the job performance at the level of the Iraqi Ministries of Finance and Planning, so the President of the Kurdistan Region Nechirvan Barzani will carry the file of salaries, budget and the issue of oil export at the meeting of the state administration.”
He stresses that “these problems are resolved with sincerity of intentions and not by raising positive slogans and permits, especially as the country is going through a delicate stage and there are great fears for the future of Iraq.”
Earlier today, the Kurdistan Regional Government, ministers and representatives of the Kurdistan Region in Baghdad called on the federal government to guarantee full 2025 salaries without decrease.
“Baghdad has sent less than 7 percent of the financial dues to the region so far,” government spokesman Bishwa Horamani said during a press conference, noting that “the federal government has not sent Kurdistan’s salaries for December 2024 despite its promise in this.”
Huramani stressed that “Baghdad does not deal with Kurdistan as a constitutional federal entity,” noting that “the regional government handed over to Baghdad all statistics on financial revenues and the number of employees in the region,” pointing out that “the rights of Kurdistan are reserved within the amendment of the draft budget law for the current year.”
In this regard, a member of the Committee of Regions and Irregular Governorates in a region of the Iraqi Council of Representatives, Thaer Abdul Kadhim Mukhif, confirms to Shafaq News Agency that “the Kurdistan region always suffers from the financial situation and delays in the salaries of employees, and demands in each meeting to put these problems before the federal government in order to find solutions to them.”
The visit of the President of the Kurdistan Region Nechirvan Barzani to Baghdad comes “at a sensitive time and a dangerous turning point that Iraq is going through, with mutual accusations between Erbil and Baghdad about the salaries of employees of the Kurdistan Region,” according to political analyst, Ather Al-Shara.
Al-Shara adds to Shafaq News Agency that “the region says that Baghdad does not meet its obligations with regard to providing the employees of the Kurdistan Region with salaries, and that cutting off the strength of citizens may lead to a dangerous thing, so Nichirvan Barzani’s visit to Baghdad is the last. If a permanent solution is not reached, the Kurds may take the decision to withdraw from the political process, which confirms the importance of the agreement of the two governments in Baghdad and Erbil in a way that serves the interest of the Kurdish citizen and the rest of the Iraqi provinces.”
The President of the Kurdistan Regional Government, Masroor Barzani, said in an unusual meeting held this morning in Erbil on the issue of employee salaries, that “Baghdad’s treatment of Kurdistan is not dealing with a federal territory, and we have reached the conclusion that Baghdad’s behavior towards the Kurdistan Region is unjust, unfair and unacceptable, and the course of relations between the Kurdistan Region and Baghdad should be corrected.”
The Kurdistan Regional Council of Ministers confirmed on January 8 that it had fulfilled its obligations in the best possible way and was continuing its efforts with the federal government to provide salaries and financial dues to the region.
The council said during a regular session in which it discussed the issue of employees’ salaries: “Unfortunately because of the measures taken by the Federal Ministry of Finance, although now in January 2025 and employees in other governorates of Iraq received the salaries of December 2024, but the Kurdistan Region did not receive them.”
He stressed in a statement in response to Shafak News that “the Kurdistan Regional Government has resolved all issues related to the general budget and salary statements.”
However, the researcher on political affairs says Dr. Saif Al-Saadi, “it is not expected to solve these problems. At a time when the region presents arguments that it adhered to what is stated in the federal general budget, especially in Articles 13 and 14 to export oil through the Somo Company of the Iraqi Ministry of Oil, Baghdad also presents arguments that the region did not pay what is required of its imports during the previous years, which is part of the federal general budget.”
Al-Saadi added to Shafaq News that “these differences are not expected to reach a solution in the coming days, especially after the end of the honeymoon between the Sudanese government and the regional government, after witnessing in the previous period the wetting of the atmosphere and relative calm, especially since the country is about to elections and the election law will be within the round of conflict between Baghdad and Erbil and between the political class in general.”
He explains, “As political parties are trying to legislate laws commensurate with their sizes and not in response to the desire of social or mass norms, as well as the situation in the region, which seeks its interests after the Federal Court’s decision to reduce the number of seats in the Kurdistan Regional Parliament, which may affect the vocal weight, whether the Kurdish Democrat or the National Union, and other emerging lists that would affect the Kurdistan Regional Government.”
He continues, “Therefore, the President of the Kurdistan Region, Nechirvan Barzani, during his visit to Baghdad, will discuss the interests of the region by ensuring an electoral law that guarantees fair and effective participation of the Kurdistan Region and in line with the desire of the Kurdish actor in the Iraqi House of Representatives.”
But on the other hand, Baqer Al-Saadi, a deputy from the State of Law Coalition led by Nuri al-Maliki, during his speech to Shafaq News, expects that the meeting of the President of the Kurdistan Region Nechirvan Barzani with the framework in Baghdad tomorrow will lead to “solving the regional salary crisis, as well as discussing the upcoming elections.”
https://www.shafaq.com/ar/أمـن/طلاق-نار-صوب-محام-وسط-كركوك-فيديو
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