SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region — Kurdish Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani warned Sunday of the “continued violation of the Iraqi constitution” by Baghdad, and accused the central Iraqi government of pressuring the Kurdistan region. Speaking at a platform in Sulaimani, Barzani said Baghdad’s decision to cut the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) budget “had put the people of Kurdistan in economic misery,” which “would not be tolerated anymore.” “We value the wellbeing of all Iraqi people, but we won’t tolerate the kind of deprivation and misery that is inflicted on the people of the Kurdistan region,” Barzani told delegates representing Iraq’s different provinces. Barzani said the KRG had “fully” committed to the budget agreement between Erbil and Baghdad signed in December last year, but that Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s government “had not lived up” to the terms of the same agreement. “In short, we agreed to export 550,000 barrels per day through the Kurdistan region pipelines to Turkey via SOMO (Iraqi State Oil Marketing Organization), and in return the Kurdistan Region would receive 1.2 trillion Iraqi dinars ($1 billion) from the national revenues, which equals 17 percent of Iraqi incomes,” Barzani said. He added the Abadi government had not delivered its part of the deal despite the fact that the KRG had increased its oil output in a record time to meet the agreement. “Unfortunately Mr Abadi cut another 10 percent of April’s payment of the already reduced budget,” Barzani said describing the cut as “very dangerous,” which is against the “principle of agreement and alliance.” Barzani slammed Baghdad for not assisting the Kurdistan region “in a time of crisis” when the KRG had to deal with “millions of refugees and ISIS brutality.” “Despite the heavy burden on the KRG due to the influx of refugees to Kurdistan, and the protracted war against the terrorist group ISIS, the Iraqi government did not meet its obligations towards the Peshmerga as part of the Iraqi defense system and even obstructed the way for international aid to reach the Peshmerga,” he said.
