US encourages Iraq’s parties to continue budget talks   

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The United States encourages all the Iraqi and Kurdistan Region parties to continue their talks on the pending issues that need to be resolved in order to pass the country’s three-year budget bill, a senior diplomat told Kurdistan 24 on Thursday.

The US Ambassador to Iraq Alina L. Romanowski’s remarks came during a press conference the diplomat held early Thursday in Sulaimani, where she touched upon various issues in the country and its Kurdish region, including the sixth parliamentary election in Kurdistan as well as the budget bill.

In response to a question from Kurdistan 24 reporter, Aram Bakhtiyar, about what role the US would play if Baghdad does not send Kurdistan’s share in the federal budget amid the Kurdish region’s halted oil export, the diplomat said her country encourages the ongoing budget talks. 

“I do not want to speculate on anything. I do want to continue to encourage all parties to continue their very intensive discussions about issues that need to be resolved in order to pass the federal budget,” Romanowski said.

She stressed the importance of reaching an agreement on a “fair appropriation and division of revenue” for Iraq’s stability.

The Iraqi parliament is set to vote on its budget bill for the years 2023, 2024, and 2025 on Thursday afternoon after the session was delayed due to unexpected changes to the draft budget law by the Finance Committee recently.

One of the amendments obliges the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to repay the deducted amounts from public salaries – a measure the Kurdish government claims was forced to take after Baghdad cut its share of the federal budget. The Kurdish government also believes it is Baghdad’s responsibility to repay the deducted sum, estimated to be millions of dollars.

Individual Kurdish provinces can directly receive their financial entitlements from Baghdad in case the regional government fails to equitably share the revenues, according to the draft budget’s amended Articles 13 and 14.

The Region’s political parties are in discussion with the government-forming coalition to reverse the amendments that KRG considers as a violation of the previous agreements between Erbil and Baghdad, including the April 4 deal to resume halted Kurdish export to Turkey’s Ceyhan port.

Baghdad requested Turkey to officially halt the Kurdish export on March 25 after it claimed victory in a dispute at the International Court of Arbitration in Paris.

Additional reporting by Kurdistan 24 Sulaimani reporter Aram Bakhtiyar