Kurdistan accuses Baghdad of failing on salary commitments

Shafaq News – Erbil

On Thursday, Kurdish Minister of Endowments and Religious Affairs, Pshtiwan Sadiq, criticized the Iraqi government’s handling of funding monthly salaries for public sector employees in the Kurdistan Region.

Addressing a group of religious leaders in Erbil, Sadiq noted that since 2014, Baghdad’s policies have created difficulties for the people of the Kurdistan Region, highlighting that Kurdistan agreed to all federal demands, including transferring oil and non-oil revenues to Baghdad in exchange for salary payments.

“We have fulfilled our commitments, but the federal government has not honored its side of the agreement,” Sadiq noted.

Sadiq also pointed to efforts by the federal government aimed at “weakening and economically marginalizing Kurdistan”, warning that opposition parties in the Region are further undermining its constitutional status.

Since May, tensions have escalated between Erbil and Baghdad over the release of public sector salaries. Iraqi authorities linked disbursements to the Kurdistan Region’s full transfer of oil exports to the state-run SOMO company, along with increased oversight of non-oil revenues. The Kurdish government rejected those terms as exceeding earlier agreements.

The resulting deadlock has delayed salary payments for hundreds of thousands of public employees in the Region. As a temporary measure, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani authorized the payment of May’s salaries through a federal loan, pending further resolution.