ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Iraq’s State Council on Wednesday postponed its ruling on the issue of non-oil revenues in the Kurdistan Region after failing to reach a consensus, according to The New Region’s Baghdad correspondent.

The council had convened in the morning for what was expected to be a final session, but members were unable to adopt a unified position. The matter has been deferred until Thursday.

The State Council, founded in 1933 and restructured under a 2017 law, is an independent judicial and administrative body. It provides legal advice to Iraq’s three presidencies, issues opinions on disputes between ministries, rules on administrative cases through its Administrative Judiciary Court, and clarifies ambiguous legal texts.

The Kurdistan Region’s two representatives did not attend Wednesday’s meeting, according to The New Region's Baghdad correspondent. Their absence means any council decision would not be binding on the regional government, allowing Erbil the option of referring the matter to the Federal Supreme Court if needed.

The dispute follows three months of negotiations between Baghdad and Erbil over oil exports and salary payments for public employees. Talks were triggered after the federal finance minister halted salary transfers to the region in May, saying that the Kurdistan Region had already exceeded its budgetary entitlement for the year.

The Iraqi Council of Ministers on Tuesday approved an agreement to resume the Kurdistan Region’s oil exports through the State Organization for Marketing of Oil (SOMO), marking an advancement in the longstanding Erbil-Baghdad disputes.

While agreements have since been announced on resuming oil exports and releasing salaries, non-oil revenues remain a sticking point. Officials on both sides have repeatedly said the talks were moving positively toward a final settlement, but the impasse over revenues has delayed progress.

A top source in the Iraqi government told The New Region on Tuesday that a tripartite agreement between Erbil, Baghdad, and the International Oil Companies (IOCs) regarding the resumption of the Region's oil exports and the handover of non-oil revenues to Baghdad should be announced in the next two days if the Iraqi oil ministry approves the current proposal.

However, the postponement of the State Council's ruling on the handover of non-oil revenues suggests that the timeline for reaching a comprehensive agreement will likely be delayed.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani earlier formed a ministerial committee to address the matter but referred the file last week to the State Council for a binding legal opinion.