Iraqi PM meets President Barzani on day two of Kurdistan Region visit
Photos from the presidency office show Barzani greeting Kadhimi at the entrance to the Erbil office. The two will have breakfast together, before discussing points of contention between Erbil and Baghdad, the Iraqi premier's spokesperson told Rudaw on Thursday.
“Kadhimi will meet with Nechirvan Barzani and they will have breakfast and they will discuss the issues between Kurdistan regional government (KRG) and the federal government,” spokesperson Ahmed Mulla Talal said.
Kadhimi will then fly to the city of Sulaimani to meet with local officials, before heading to Halabja to visiting that city's massacre monument, according to Talal.
The Iraqi prime minister arrived in Erbil on Thursday for meetings with top KRG officials, while a delegation from KRG continues to hammer out oil, budget and border crossing issues with the federal government in Baghdad.
Kadhimi's met with leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and former Kurdistan Region president Masoud Barzani. State media quoted the Iraqi premier as saying during the meeting that the Kurdistan Region "is an essential part of Iraq," before recalling cooperation between Erbil and Baghdad during the war against the Islamic State (ISIS).
In a meeting with Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Region Masrour Barzani, Kadhimi said that the "chance has arrived for everyone to cooperate,” according to Iraqi state media.
PM Barzani described Kadhimi’s visit as a “positive sign” for the resolution of Erbil-Baghdad issues, according to a readout from his office. The Kurdish premier noted that issues between the regional and federal governments “are not limited to salaries and the budget, and we hope that the unresolved issues are resolved in the near future, based on the constitution.”
While in Duhok, Kadhimi visited the Ibrahim Khalil crossing at the Kurdistan Region-Turkey border in Duhok province. Beyond the issues of budget, oil and border crossings, the Iraqi prime minister met with displaced Yezidi residents at Qadiya camp in Duhok, and visited the survivors of Saddam Hussein's Anfal genocide in the province.
Last week, Nechirvan Barzani paid a visit to Baghdad, where he met with Kadhimi and a number of Iraqi leaders on the sidelines of a meeting with France's President Emmanuel Macron.
“I held a round of meetings with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad, including Prime Minister Al-Kadhimi, President Salih, Speaker Halbousi & Sayyid [Ammar] Al-Hakim. We discussed bilateral relations, challenges facing the country & resolving outstanding issues in accordance with the Constitution,” Barzani said in a tweet after the visit.
Kadhimi’s visit comes after a high-level KRG delegation arrived in Baghdad on Tuesday for talks over the contentious issues of oil and and federal budget shares.
The trip by the KRG deputy prime minister Qubad Talabani-led delegation is part of a series of visits to Baghdad beginning last month that mark the KRG's first-time participation in drafting Iraq's annual budget.
The Kurdistan Region is heavily dependent on its share of the Iraqi budget, and Kurdish officials have said they cannot pay civil servants without what it says is its fair share of federal government money.
Erbil says it is entitled to its 12.67% share of federal funds, as stipulated by Iraq's 2019 budget law, while Baghdad says the KRG has not lived up to its end of a deal that includes turning over 250,000 barrels of oil daily to Iraq's State Organization for the Marketing of Oil (SOMO), a state-owned oil company.
Before the August agreement between premiers Barzani and Kadhimi, Baghdad had not sent funds to Erbil since April, worsening the KRG's failure to pay complete and full public sector employee salaries this year.
KRG public sector employees have taken to the streets over delays in salary payments. Demonstrations and strikes calling on the KRG's current cabinet to resign have occurred several times in Sulaimani province, while protests by teachers in May over delayed pay in Duhok were shut down.
Rudaw
