Ban Ki-moon welcomes Baghdad-Erbil budget deal

NEW YORK - United Nations Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon welcomed a breakthrough deal between the Iraqi government and Erbil, saying the two should build on the agreement to resolve remaining disputes.

Baghdad and the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) agreed to a deal to help resolve an almost year-long dispute over budget payments and oil sales, Iraq’s Kurdish Finance Minister Hoshyar Zebari told Rudaw on Thursday.

Ban “encouraged the Federal and Regional authorities to build on this important first step and to solve all remaining outstanding issues within the framework of the Constitution,” according to a UN statement.

Other disagreements between Erbil and Baghdad include vast swaths of disputed territories and the issue of who pays for the Kurdish Peshmerga forces, which are constitutionally part of the Iraqi armed forces.

The secretary general congratulated Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani “for the willingness to negotiate and conclude agreements that are in the interest of the Iraqi people,” the statement said.

Ban added that the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) stands ready, within its mandate, to continue supporting this process.

The agreed deal involves an upfront payment of $500 million by Baghdad to pay the salaries of Kurdish civil servants as part of the central government’s constitutional obligation. 

In return, Kurdistan would hand over to the federal government 150,000 barrels of Kurdish oil a day exported through Kurdistan’s pipeline to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.