ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – The Iraqi Council of Ministers on Tuesday concluded a regular meeting where they were reportedly set to discuss the Kurdistan Region civil servants’ salary issues. The matter was not mentioned at all during the sitting, a participant in the meeting confirmed to The New Region.

Sherwan Dubardani, a Kurdish lawmaker in the Iraqi parliament, told The New Region earlier on Tuesday that the meeting was set to discuss the ongoing reprobation by Baghdad of the Kurdistan Region’s civil servant salaries for May.

The gathering, however, was concluded on Tuesday afternoon without discussing the matter at all, a well-informed source confirmed to The New Region. The subject was not discussed “even on the sidelines” of the council’s session, said the source, who participated in the meeting.

In a letter addressed to the KRG in late May, Iraqi Finance Minister Taif Sami said that they are “unable to continue funding the Region,” arguing that the Region has already exceeded the 12.67 percent of the annual budget it is entitled to, totaling 13.5 trillion dinars. The issue has persisted despite numerous meetings since then to come to a solution between the two sides, the latest of which was a Kurdish delegation who returned to Erbil on Monday after striking a deal with Iraqi authorities to resolve financial issues between the two sides.

The distribution of the Kurdistan Region’s share of the federal budget has long been a point of contention between Erbil and Baghdad.

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 recent suspension of salaries has sparked outrage among the Kurdistan Region’s public as well as the officials and politicians of the Region, who have decried the decision as “political.” The halt in salaries has led to a lawsuit filed against the finance ministry by the Region’s civil servants at the Federal Supreme Court in early June.