ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Visiting Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani and Kurdish Prime Minister Masrour Barzani discussed an array of pressing issues in Erbil on Wednesday including the resumption of oil exports from the Kurdistan Region to the international market, budgetary payments, regional stability, efforts towards the formation of the next government in Erbil, and an upcoming population census which will be held on November 20.
“The Federal Prime Minister congratulated the Prime Minister of Kurdistan on the success of the Kurdistan parliamentary elections,” read a statement from PM Barzani’s media office, adding Sudani pointed out that “the stability of the Kurdistan Region is a crucial foundation for stability for the whole of Iraq.”
Prime Minister Sudani stressed the need for the formation of the next government to help “enhance coordination between the Regional Government and the federal government.”
An array of other topics including budgetary payments, the resumption of the Region’s oil exports, and the November 20 population census also centered discussions between the two prime ministers.
Concerning the matter of budget, PM Barzani found it necessary to “decouple the subject of budgetary payments from political rivalries,” and concerning oil resumptions, both sides “voiced the significance of the resumption of oil exports as soon as possible, and the need to remove all obstacles in the way of the process, in a way that would be in the interest of the public in the Kurdistan Region and Iraq as a whole.”
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.
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.
After meeting with PM Barzani, Prime Minister Sudani gathered with Nechirvan Barzani, president of the Kurdistan Region. There are no statements from either side regarding the details of their talks, as of the time of writing this report.
Sudani is set to depart to Sulaimani to meet PUK leaders and local authorities in the city, once he has concluded his agenda in Erbil.
Sudani last visited the Kurdistan Region in November 2023.
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