Kurdistan Region cabinet focuses on dialogue with Baghdad
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani said on Wednesday that outstanding differences between Baghdad and Erbil are not limited to issues of salaries, financial dues, and oil, as highlighted recently in the media, but also include conditions in territories disputed by the federal and regional governments.
His comments came during a regional cabinet meeting when the discussion turned to the continuing negotiations with Baghdad.
Barzani said that the recent visit to the Kurdistan Region by Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi was a positive step on the road to resolving disputes between the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the federal government “on the basis of the constitution.”
“Prime Minister Barzani stressed that disputes with Baghdad cannot be reduced to oil and budgetary issues alone, but also the need to normalize conditions in disputed territories,” according to a statement on the KRG website.
Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani presented the results of his most recent visit at the head of a high-ranking KRG delegation to Baghdad, indicating without much detail that the discussions are heading towards reaching some sort of long-term agreement.
“During the meeting, the Cabinet also remembered the Baathist regime's massacre of Muslim and Christian populations in the village of Sorya near the town of Zakho on September 16, 1969, and paid tribute to the martyrs of this crime,” the statement read.
The meeting concluded with a discussion regarding the strategic foundations of the federal budget for the years 2021, 2022, and 2023, and the Kurdistan Region’s participation in a national committee formed to oversee the efforts.
“The Cabinet tasked all ministers to cooperate with the (federal) Ministries of Finance and Planning on the federal budget for 2021-2023 to protect the Kurdistan Region's financial entitlements.”
On Tuesday, KRG Peshmerga Minister Shorsh Ismail addressed the disputed territories in a joint press briefing with US Ambassador to Iraq Matthew Tueller in which he announced that the United States had committed almost $250 million in security assistance to the Kurdistan Region's military forces.
In his remarks, Ismail stressed that the threat posed by the Islamic State continues to be a significant challenge for both Peshmerga forces and the Iraqi military in multiple areas, notably in disputed territories in the provinces of Nineveh, Diyala, and Kirkuk.
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Iraq and Peshmerga forces together under joint coordination had provided security much more effectively than Iraqi forces and Iran-backed militias of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) have proven to be capable of, ever since they attacked Peshmerga and pushed them from the areas as part of Baghdad's hostile response to the Kurdistan Region's 2017 independence referendum.
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Regarding coordination between the Peshmerga forces and the Iraqi forces in these areas, something Kurdistan Region officials have repeatedly and consistently called for, Ismail said, “We have made great attempts to strengthen relations with the Iraqi Ministry of Defense.”
“We hope that we will establish joint programs with the Ministry of Defense to carry out operations against ISIS.”
Editing by John J. Catherine