Iraq
Ashwaq al-Jaf, senior member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) bloc in the Iraqi parliament, speaks to Rudaw on May 14, 2026. Photo: Screengrab/Rudaw
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The decade-long dispute between the Kurdistan Region and Baghdad over civil servant salaries has been addressed in the ministerial program of Iraq’s newly appointed prime minister Ali al-Zaidi, following an agreement between Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani and the ruling Shiite Coordination Framework, a prominent Kurdish lawmaker told Rudaw.
“An agreement has been reached to address the stalled salaries of civil servants in the Kurdistan Region,” Ashwaq al-Jaf, a senior member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) bloc in the Iraqi parliament, said on Thursday.
She added that “one of the key points Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani agreed on with the Coordination Framework parties in Baghdad was resolving the salaries issue, and based on this agreement, the matter has been included in the [incoming] Iraqi government’s ministerial program.”
The Kurdistan Region's salary issue is a persistent financial crisis rooted in a revenue-for-funding dispute between Erbil and Baghdad, where the federal government often withholds monthly payroll transfers - totaling roughly $650 million to $800 million - due to disagreements over Erbil’s oil exports and non-oil revenues.
This has resulted in a decade of "missing" or deducted months, leaving a $21 billion debt in unpaid arrears to over a million civil servants in the Region and causing widespread economic stagnation and strikes.
As of May 2026, while the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has improved compliance by remitting non-oil revenues and implementing the MyAccount digital payroll system for transparency, payments remain irregular and tied to the shifting political whims.
The Iraqi legislature on Thursday gave its vote of confidence in Zaidi, approving his government program and 14 members of his cabinet line-up, this while votes on nine remaining ministerial positions, including the crucial defense and interior portfolios, were deferred.
While the KDP’s nominee for a second term as Foreign Minister, Fuad Hussein, was among the approved ministers and will continue in the post, the party’s candidate for the housing and reconstruction portfolio was not confirmed.
Earlier on Thursday, Rudaw had learned that Rebaz Hamlan, a Kurdish politician and financial advisor to Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani, has been selected as the KDP’s pick for the post.
However, according to Jaf, the failure to grant confidence to Hamlan was a “pre-planned move,” adding, “Our candidate did not receive the necessary votes. I saw with my own eyes messages sent to lawmakers urging them not to vote for him.”
She further anticipated that the remaining ministers would be appointed after the Islamic Eid al-Adha holiday, around May 26.
The Shiite Coordination Framework - the largest bloc in parliament, holding 174 seats in the 329-member legislature - in late April named Zaidi as its candidate for prime minister, a post traditionally held by a Shiite. The Thursday vote of confidence came amid reported disputes over ministerial portfolios within the alliance.
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