Kurdistan Region negotiating team to return to Baghdad on Sunday to discuss financial disputes
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) said that it would send a negotiating team back to Baghdad on Sunday to resume discussions on outstanding financial disputes between the two.
The talks will focus on finalizing the Kurdistan Region's share of the 2021 Iraqi federal budget.
The national budget amounted to 164 trillion Iraqi dinars ($112 billion), of which 14 trillion is allocated for the autonomous Kurdistan Region, according to the draft, which still needs parliamentary approval to be put into effect.
The meeting, between the Kurdistan Region delegation and the Iraqi legislature's Finance Committee, was originally scheduled for Saturday but was postponed to the following evening, according to the parliament's media department.
An informed political source told Kurdistan 24 that Erbil's delegation includes regional Minister of Finance Awat Sheikh Janab, Planning Minister Dara Rashid, Minister of State for Negotiation Affairs with the Federal Government Khaled Shwani, and the regional cabinet’s head of Dewan, Omid Sabah.
Kurdistan Region Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani, who led previous such delegations, will not be attending because he has contracted the coronavirus.
Over the previous two weeks, the federal parliament's Finance Committee has held a series of meetings with most major Iraqi political parties in an attempt to reach an agreement regarding the draft budget needed for it to survive a vote by lawmakers.
Many representatives have said they seek to reduce the budget from 164 trillion dinars to no more than 130 trillion, which means reducing the share of the Kurdistan Region as well.
The Finance Committee also met with Iraq's Minister of Oil last Thursday to focus on oil disputes between the two governments, a committee official told Kurdistan 24.
The KRG's Ministry of Natural Resources said in its latest statement that the Kurdistan Region is ready to deliver revenues of 250 thousand barrels of oil to Baghdad, as previously agreed upon.
Editing by John J. Catherine
