“Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani will receive Federal Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani today, Saturday, at 11:00 at Erbil International Airport,” said a KRG statement.
Sudani will also meet with Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) leader Masoud Barzani during his visit, Rudaw has learned.
His visit comes amid strained ties between Erbil and Baghdad over oil exports and often delayed payments of salaries for the Kurdistan Region’s civil servants. Their financial disputes have been ongoing for more than a decade.
The Iraqi government cut the Kurdistan Region’s share of the federal budget in 2014, after which Erbil began to export crude oil unilaterally and relied on these funds as its primary income. Low oil prices and the war with the Islamic State (ISIS), however, hit the government’s finances. Civil servants have borne the brunt of the government’s austerity measures. Their monthly salaries were frequently delayed or reduced and are now being paid by Baghdad.
The unpaid salaries crisis in the Kurdistan Region has been aggravated the past two years following the suspension of Kurdish oil exports in March 2023 as the result of a court ruling in favor of Baghdad that Ankara violated a 1973 pipeline agreement by allowing Erbil to export oil independently.
Negotiations between Iraqi and Kurdish officials, along with international oil companies operating in the Kurdistan Region, have yet to yield concrete results. The oil companies demand payment guarantees and contractual security, Baghdad insists on federal oversight, and Erbil seeks a resolution that safeguards its economic interests.
In a November visit to Erbil, Sudani and Prime Minister Barzani discussed mechanisms to resume Kurdish oil exports as well as efforts to form the Kurdistan Region’s next government.
