KRG Holds Special Meeting on Salary Crisis, Barzani Urges 'Intensified Efforts' with Baghdad

Peregraf

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) held a special meeting today chaired by Prime Minister Masrour Barzani, with the attendance of Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani, to discuss the deepening salary crisis and stalled oil exports.

After the meeting, PM Barzani said the session focused on “the latest efforts and results of negotiations with the federal government on the salaries and financial entitlements of the people of the Kurdistan Region and the resumption of oil exports as soon as possible.”

Barzani emphasized that there is “a consensus and solidarity to ensure the salaries and financial entitlements of the Kurdish people, which is a legal and constitutional right of the salaried employees.”

He added that the KRG continues to prioritize resolving the salary crisis, which has severely affected the livelihoods of public employees and citizens across the region. “This issue is the priority of the government and for this purpose it is continuously working to resolve it,” he stated.

The prolonged dispute over the federal budget law has left civil servants unpaid for May and June. Baghdad has withheld transfers, citing the KRG’s failure to comply with provisions mandating the handover of 400,000 barrels of oil per day to Iraq’s State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO), along with boosting non-oil revenues.

The meeting comes a day after Barzani’s political party, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), announced it would give Baghdad a “last chance” to resolve the crisis. The announcement followed a KDP Political Bureau meeting to assess deteriorating economic conditions and federal-regional relations.

According to a statement from Barzani’s office, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein, who recently returned to Erbil, briefed KDP leaders on renewed pledges from federal officials to address the crisis.

“At their request and promise, in order to continue a peaceful dialogue and take into account the situation and the public interest, we thought it would be good to give the Iraqi federal government in Baghdad a last chance to find a way to end this problem,” the statement said.

The KDP reaffirmed its commitment to dialogue and mutual understanding as the best path forward. “We have always believed that if there is a way through dialogue, we would like to resolve issues through mutual understanding,” it added.

Public discontent continues to rise as the financial impasse drags on, with growing pressure on both Erbil and Baghdad to reach a political and fiscal resolution.