Following a meeting with Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani in Baghdad, Maliki told reporters, including Rudaw's Halkawt Aziz, that solving the pending issues between the KRG and the federal government “is not a matter of real intentions, but it is an inevitable obligation.”
Maliki, who is also the leader of the State of Law Coalition and a key member of the ruling State Administration Coalition, said that it was not in the interest of Iraq or the Kurdistan Region for the issues to remain outstanding.
Maliki and Barzani discussed the political process, bilateral relations, as well as the security situation in the Kurdistan Region and Iraq, according to the former Iraqi premier.
“Our discussion was based on the fact that we are partners in building a stable country and to prevent Iraq from all the challenges and sliding into security issues,” Maliki said.
The leaders “discussed the continuation of talks between the Iraqi federal government and the KRG to resolve the issues between Erbil and Baghdad, in a way that the rights and entitlements of all the components are protected,” according to a statement from the Kurdistan Region Presidency.
President Barzani arrived in Baghdad on Saturday to attend a ceremony commemorating Shiite cleric Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim. He later met with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani and other Iraqi officials.
During their meeting, Sudani and Barzani discussed “the steps taken by the KRG and the federal government to resolve the issues of budget, employee salaries, resumption of Kurdistan Region's oil exports and several other administrative, financial and economic topics.”
The frequent delay in paying salaries, which has been an issue for the cash-strapped KRG for nearly a decade, has made life difficult for civil servants, many of whom have no other source of income.
Delegations from the KRG have visited Baghdad frequently over the past few months to discuss amending the federal budget to guarantee Kurdish civil servants receive their salaries on time. The KRG described its latest meeting with the federal government last week as “positive” and said that Erbil had “fulfilled” its obligations.
