KRG Cabinet to Tackle Baghdad Accord on Salaries, Oil
The KRG cabinet will convene to discuss the Baghdad agreement on salaries and oil, following recent U.S. pressure on the Iraqi PM to fulfill the Region's financial entitlements and ensure consistent salary payments.
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Kurdistan Region Council of Ministers is set to convene today to discuss the implementation of its critical financial and oil agreement with Baghdad, a high-stakes meeting that comes just one day after the United States’ top diplomat publicly urged the Iraqi government to ensure consistent salary payments to the region.
Chaired by Prime Minister Masrour Barzani, the cabinet meeting on Wednesday will address two key items on its agenda, according to a statement from the KRG’s Department of Media and Information.
The first item on the agenda will cover “the latest developments regarding the implementation of the recent mutual agreement and understanding between the Kurdistan Regional Government and the Federal Government.” The statement specified that this agreement, which was approved by both sides' Councils of Ministers, pertains to the pressing issues of public sector salaries, the Kurdistan Region's overall financial entitlements, and the management of oil and non-oil revenues.
Under the second item, the council will discuss the minutes of a special meeting focused on implementing the agreement. The goal is to establish a working mechanism to regulate the work of the Region's Standardization and Quality Control Board.
The focus on salaries and revenues comes amid significant international pressure on Baghdad to resolve these long-standing disputes with Erbil.
On Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani and, according to a U.S. readout of the call, “noted the importance of paying Iraqi Kurdistan Region (IKR) salaries consistently and resuming oil exports via the Iraq-Türkiye Pipeline.”
In that same call, Secretary Rubio also demanded that Baghdad hold perpetrators of recent drone attacks on the Kurdistan Region's energy infrastructure accountable and warned that a pending bill concerning the Popular Mobilization Commission (PMC) would "institutionalize Iranian influence and armed terrorist groups undermining Iraq’s sovereignty."
