ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani arrived in Erbil on Wednesday where he was received by Kurdish Prime Minister Masrour Barzani to discuss a range of topics with the Kurdish leadership.
PM Barzani said the agenda of his meeting with visiting Iraqi PM Sudani covered “budgetary payments, census, regional security” in a post on social media platform X.
Sabhan Mulla Chiad, an advisor to PM Sudani, earlier told The New Region that Sudani would discuss outstanding issues between Erbil and Baghdad, regional tensions, and the Kurdistan Region's current efforts towards the formation of the tenth cabinet.
“By taking the recent situation the region goes through into account, the prime minister’s visit to the Kurdistan Region is of high importance,” Chiad told The New Region. “The visit is to reaffirm Iraq’s united stance that the country is not part of the regional rivalries.”
Chiad added “The visit is also to bolster coordination between the Kurdistan Regional Government and the federal government on the international relation dossiers” as well as domestic topics, including “issues in the fields of oil and gas and other unresolved subjects.”
Erbil and Baghdad have for a decade now been at loggerheads over financial issues, notably the salaries of the Kurdistan Region’s civil servants
Years of conflict and unresolved issues between Erbil and Baghdad, and economic sanctions and pressure on Erbil by federal authorities, have pushed employees in the Region to live from paycheck to paycheck.
The Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) financial crisis was exacerbated in the wake of the halt of Erbil’s oil exports following a court ruling on a dispute between Iraq and Turkey over the Kurdistan Region’s independent oil sales.
Exports of the Kurdistan Region’s oil through the Turkish Ceyhan pipeline were halted in March 2023 after Ankara lost a case against Baghdad in a Paris-based arbitration court. The case accused Ankara of breaching a 1973 agreement by allowing the KRG to start selling oil independent of Baghdad.
“Significant steps have been taken in Sudani’s government to resolve the majority of the subjects, and in today’s visit talks will be held on the issues, as both sides are keen and serious to resolve their issues within the framework of the constitution,” he elaborated.
Chiad said Sudani would try to bring the political parties closer together to form “a balanced and strong” government.
The Kurdistan Region held parliamentary elections on October 20, following a two-year delay, in which the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) emerged as the clear victor, scoring over 400,000 votes more than its nearest competitor, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).
The KDP and PUK on Tuesday announced their teams to hold talks on the formation of the next government.
Sudani last visited the Kurdistan Region in November 2023.
Updated at 10:43 am with a PM Masrour Barzani's post on X
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