Kurdistan Region president to meet Iraqi leaders in Baghdad

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – Kurdistan Region Prime President Nechirvan Barzani on Saturday is set to meet with several top Iraqi officials in Baghdad.

President Barzani on early Saturday attended an event in Baghdad to mark Iraq Martyrs Day, commemorating the assassination of Sayyed Mohammed Baqir Al-Hakim who was killed in August 2003 by a car bomb after leading prayers at the Shrine of Imam Ali in Najaf.

Several other Iraqi leaders, including Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ Al-Sudani and President Latif Rasheed, attended the event.

The Kurdish president is set to meet with Prime Minister Al-Sudani to discuss the outstanding issues between Erbil and Baghdad, including the amendment of the country’s three-year budget as well as drafting oil and gas law.

 In the absence of paying the Kurdish share from the federal budget, the Iraqi government has released several payments as loans to Erbil for it to be able to pay its civil servants.

Since its adoption in early June, KRG diplomats have alleged the budget has not been implemented properly by the government. Instead of paying the Kurdish share, they allege Baghdad has released allowances to Erbil to cover public salaries. The KRG has previously said the 500 billion dinars (over $384 million) provided by Baghdad thus far is not sufficient to pay the salaries.

Hailed as one of the country’s biggest budgets, the state expenditures were set at 198.91 trillion Iraqi dinars ($153 billion), with a deficit of more than 64 trillion dinars (over $48 billion).