ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Council of Ministers held a special meeting on Sunday to address its ongoing financial dispute with Baghdad, focusing on delayed public salaries, budget allocations, and the stalled resumption of oil exports.
Prime Minister Masrour Barzani and Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani presided over the meeting, which reviewed “the latest efforts and results of dialogue and negotiations with the federal government, specifically concerning the salaries and financial entitlements of the people of the Kurdistan Region and the immediate resumption of the Region's oil exports,” according to a statement from the KRG.
The statement added that officials emphasized “intensifying all efforts with the federal government to resolve the issue,” stressing there is “consensus and solidarity” to secure the Region’s salaries and financial dues.
“This matter is a priority of the previous and current government, and therefore, it continues working continuously to resolve it,” it read.
Tensions between Erbil and Baghdad escalated in late May after the federal finance ministry halted all budget transfers to the KRG, including the salaries of over 1.2 million public servants. The ministry claimed Erbil had already received more than its 12.67 percent share of the 2025 federal budget and had not delivered its agreed share of oil.
On Saturday, the Region’s ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) warned it was giving Baghdad a “final opportunity” to resolve the salary dispute.
The party said that Fuad Hussein, Iraq’s foreign minister and a senior KDP official, had spoken with political parties in Baghdad and returned to the Region with a message that officials in the capital had promised to resolve the matter “in the coming few days.”
The standoff has also been exacerbated by the suspension of Kurdish oil exports through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline, which has remained offline since March 2023.
Iraq’s Oil Minister Hayyan Abdul Ghani said Saturday that the delay in resumption is due to new demands from Erbil for higher volumes of oil for domestic use, explaining that while the KRG initially agreed to receive 46,000 barrels per day for internal consumption, “the Region is now requesting it be 65,000, thus violating the budget law.”
Under the 2025 budget law, the KRG is required to deliver 400,000 barrels per day to the State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO).
