ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – US Vice President Mike Pence discussed the re-opening of Kurdistan Region’s airports and payment of KRG salaries in a phone call with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Thursday.
“The Vice President was pleased to hear more about the re-opening of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region’s airports and the initial payment of some Kurdistan Regional Government salaries,” read a statement from the White House about the phone call.
Abadi “has given directions for reopening the Sulaimani and Erbil airports for international flights after the legal and constitutional measures of federal control over the airports were completed,” his office announced in a tweet on Thursday.
Baghdad is expected to send technical teams to the airports on Sunday to begin operations.
"The technical sides from Sunday onward will come to the airports and start working under the [Iraqi] Civil Aviation Authority," Bestun Zangana, the head of the Transportation Committee in the Iraqi parliament, said in Erbil on Wednesday.
Erbil International Airport has said it will advise travellers when services are expected to resume “as airlines re-allocate aircraft and crew to the Erbil route.”
Budget airline flydubai has scheduled its first flights into Erbil for March 19.
Baghdad banned international flights at the Erbil and Sulaimani airports last fall after Kurdistan voted for independence. The central government took a number of measures in an attempt to exert federal control over the autonomous region.
As Erbil and Baghdad negotiate their relationship in the wake of the independence vote, Baghdad has agreed to pay at least some of the KRG’s public sector salaries. A Kurdish official said she expects Baghdad will began paying the salaries of the health and education sectors from Sunday.
In their phone call, Pence and Abadi also discussed “the Trump Administration’s deep commitment to protect persecuted Christians and other religious minorities in Iraq and the greater Middle East, a commitment which is shared by Prime Minister Abadi.”
The dwindling Christian community has been shaken by new fears for its security in Iraq after the stabbing death of a doctor and his wife and mother in Baghdad last week.
In Iraq’s last census in 1987, some 1.5 million Christians were counted. Prior to ISIS, local groups estimate the Christian population numbered between 400,000 and 600,000. About half the population have left Iraq since 2014 and around 130,000 sought shelter in the Kurdistan Region.
Iraq’s parliamentary elections, scheduled for May 12, were also discussed by the two leaders, and “reports of Iran attempting to meddle” in the vote and formation of the government, the White House statement added.
Washington officials have several times expressed concern about Iranian influence over its neighbor. Abadi has in the past told Washington and Tehran not to bring their dispute into Iraq.
There was no immediate statement from Abadi's office about the phone call.
“The Vice President was pleased to hear more about the re-opening of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region’s airports and the initial payment of some Kurdistan Regional Government salaries,” read a statement from the White House about the phone call.
Abadi “has given directions for reopening the Sulaimani and Erbil airports for international flights after the legal and constitutional measures of federal control over the airports were completed,” his office announced in a tweet on Thursday.
Baghdad is expected to send technical teams to the airports on Sunday to begin operations.
"The technical sides from Sunday onward will come to the airports and start working under the [Iraqi] Civil Aviation Authority," Bestun Zangana, the head of the Transportation Committee in the Iraqi parliament, said in Erbil on Wednesday.
Erbil International Airport has said it will advise travellers when services are expected to resume “as airlines re-allocate aircraft and crew to the Erbil route.”
Budget airline flydubai has scheduled its first flights into Erbil for March 19.
Baghdad banned international flights at the Erbil and Sulaimani airports last fall after Kurdistan voted for independence. The central government took a number of measures in an attempt to exert federal control over the autonomous region.
As Erbil and Baghdad negotiate their relationship in the wake of the independence vote, Baghdad has agreed to pay at least some of the KRG’s public sector salaries. A Kurdish official said she expects Baghdad will began paying the salaries of the health and education sectors from Sunday.
In their phone call, Pence and Abadi also discussed “the Trump Administration’s deep commitment to protect persecuted Christians and other religious minorities in Iraq and the greater Middle East, a commitment which is shared by Prime Minister Abadi.”
The dwindling Christian community has been shaken by new fears for its security in Iraq after the stabbing death of a doctor and his wife and mother in Baghdad last week.
In Iraq’s last census in 1987, some 1.5 million Christians were counted. Prior to ISIS, local groups estimate the Christian population numbered between 400,000 and 600,000. About half the population have left Iraq since 2014 and around 130,000 sought shelter in the Kurdistan Region.
Iraq’s parliamentary elections, scheduled for May 12, were also discussed by the two leaders, and “reports of Iran attempting to meddle” in the vote and formation of the government, the White House statement added.
Washington officials have several times expressed concern about Iranian influence over its neighbor. Abadi has in the past told Washington and Tehran not to bring their dispute into Iraq.
There was no immediate statement from Abadi's office about the phone call.
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