ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Kurdistan Region’s Islamic parties have declined an invitation by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to attend an extraordinary cabinet meeting to discuss Erbil-Baghdad financial disputes.
“We have been invited to the meeting but have decided not to take part,” Muthana Amin, a Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU) lawmaker in the federal parliament, told Rudaw on Friday.
The KRG had invited all Kurdish political parties that have representatives in the Iraqi parliament to attend a meeting in Erbil on Saturday about financial disputes with the federal government, Aziz Ahmed, deputy chief of staff to Prime Minister Masrour Barzani, said in a social media post on Friday.
All Kurdish ministers in the federal government will join the talks as well, Ahmed added and finished the post saying “Strong, unified signal.”
Soran Omer, head of the Kurdistan Justice Group (Komal), said they are not attending either.
KIU and Komal have been critical of the government, accusing it of not being transparent in managing its income.
The KRG has failed to pay the salaries of its civil servants on-time and in-full for a decade due to a financial crisis that worsened when its oil exports stopped in March 2023 following a court ruling on a dispute between Iraq and Turkey over the Kurdistan Region’s independent oil sales.
Erbil is now dependent on local income sources and its controversial federal budget share.
Baghdad has not yet paid the December salaries of Kurdistan Region’s civil servants and it remains unclear when the payment will be made.
Kurdish parties have about 60 spots in the 329-seat federal legislature. They also hold several key positions in Baghdad such as the presidency, and the ministers of foreign affairs, justice, the environment, and construction and housing.
