KDP Bloc Leader Says Talks Continue Over Kurdistan Region's 14% Share

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) - Erbil and Baghdad have yet to reach agreement on allocating 14% of Iraq's federal budget to the Kurdistan Region, KDP parliamentary bloc leader Shakhawan Abdullah said Saturday, while indicating that the long-running dispute over public-sector salaries was moving closer to resolution.

Abdullah spoke after a meeting between the Kurdistan Regional Government's high-level negotiating delegation, the Kurdistan Democratic Party Political Bureau and the KDP bloc in the Iraqi parliament at the party's headquarters in Pirmam.

The meeting, held at 11 a.m. on Sept. 12, focused on the latest negotiations between the federal and regional governments, the 2027 budget and the salaries of Kurdistan Region civil servants.

"The Kurdistan Regional Government has fulfilled all its constitutional obligations toward the federal government, both by handing over non-oil revenues and by auditing the payroll," Abdullah told reporters.

He argued that Baghdad therefore had "no justification left" for delaying salary payments and said the dispute was heading toward a final settlement.

According to Abdullah, the KRG negotiating delegation has presented financial data and documentation to Iraq's Ministry of Finance as part of efforts to resolve outstanding disagreements.

He also pointed to progress in biometric registration and the banking of public-sector salaries, saying both had reached an advanced stage and were helping increase confidence between Erbil and Baghdad.

Abdullah said the federal government's 2027 budget bill was expected to reach the Iraqi parliament around the middle of October.

He said the KDP parliamentary bloc supported the KRG's position in the negotiations, including its request to remove the Kurdistan Region's salary obligations and financial entitlements from the federal government's actual-expenditure mechanism.

"The government delegation has requested during the negotiations that the salaries of civil servants and the Kurdistan Region's financial entitlements be excluded from actual expenditure, so that the Region's salary earners are treated in the same manner as those in Iraq's other provinces," Abdullah said.

Such an arrangement, according to the KRG position outlined by Abdullah, would seek to prevent salary payments from being repeatedly affected by broader financial disputes between the two governments.

The salary issue has been among the most contentious elements of Erbil-Baghdad relations, with disagreements over revenues, expenditures and federal transfers repeatedly affecting public-sector employees in the Kurdistan Region.

On the Region's overall share of the federal budget, Abdullah said negotiations remain unresolved.

He confirmed that Erbil and Baghdad have not yet agreed on setting the Kurdistan Region's share at 14%, adding that discussions are continuing.

Abdullah also called on Kurdish political parties represented in Baghdad to adopt a unified position on the salary issue.

He said public-sector salaries affect people across the Kurdistan Region regardless of political affiliation and should not become a subject of partisan competition.

The Pirmam meeting comes as the KRG negotiating team continues discussions with federal authorities ahead of the anticipated submission of the 2027 budget bill, with both the Region's proposed budget share and long-term protection of salary payments still among the principal unresolved issues.