ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) on Wednesday welcomed the approval of a tripartite agreement by the Iraqi cabinet to resume the Region’s oil exports, and directed the transfer of 120 billion dinars as Baghdad’s share of domestic revenues for July.

In a regular cabinet meeting on Wednesday, the KRG’s Council of Ministers welcomed “yesterday's decision of the Federal Council of Ministers meeting approving the tripartite agreement and disbursement of the Region's salaries for July 2025,” read a KRG statement shortly after the meeting.

“It is expected hereafter that salaries for August and other months will also be disbursed to the Kurdistan Region. In return, the [KRG] Council of Ministers, as always, reaffirmed its readiness to continue implementing its commitments to provide salaries and entitlements for Kurdistan Region employees,” the statement added.

A tripartite agreement to resume the Kurdistan Region’s long-suspended oil exports was signed on Monday between Erbil, Baghdad, and international oil companies operating in the Region. The agreement, which was approved by the Iraqi cabinet on Tuesday, is set to end a two-year-old halt of the exportation of the Kurdistan Region’s oil.

In March 2023, 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 independently of Baghdad in 2014.

Regarding the dispute over non-oil revenues, the Kurdish cabinet directed the Finance and Economy ministry “to deposit another 120 billion dinars as soon as possible, as the federal treasury's share for July 2025,” the statement added, expressing readiness to coordinate with a six-member committee of the Iraqi government investigating the domestic revenue file.

The dispute between Erbil and Baghdad over oil exports, in addition to the mechanism of sharing the KRG’s non-oil revenues, has propped up a budgetary conflict between the two sides, leading to years of sanctions on the KRG by the Iraqi government, the latest of which came in May, when Iraqi Finance Minister Taif Sami notified Erbil that the federal government will suspend funding the Region’s civil servant salaries.

Civil servants in the Kurdistan Region received their salaries for June in September, while July and August salaries have yet to be funded by the Iraqi government. The KRG has repeatedly reiterated that they have “more than fulfilled” their obligations relating to finding solutions with Iraqi authorities.