ERBIL — Kurdish prominent leader and the president of Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), Masoud Barzani, has reacted to the Iraqi parliament’s passing of the controversial Deficit Law without the Kurds, saying it was a backstab to the Kurdistan Region.
On Thursday morning, Shia and Sunni blocks passed the Deficit Law in which article 5 (2), against a previous agreement between Erbil and Baghdad, obliges the Federal Government of Iraq to cut 320 billion Iraqi Dinar budget share for the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
The newly amended law states that the KRG should submit its entire oil and non-oil revenues to Baghdad in order to receive the partial budget share, which is already not enough only for public servants’s salaries.
“Unfortunately, the Iraqi political factions at the Iraqi House of Representatives, including the Shia and Sunnis, have once again stabbed the people of Kurdistan in the back,” Barzani wrote in a statement, saying that the move is exploiting the budge and the income of the people of Kurdistan to pressure the Kurdistan Region.
The Kurdish leader reminded that there have been multiple agreements between Erbil and Baghdad in the past, almost all of which were violated by the Iraqis.
Calling the Article 5 (2) of the Deficit Law “rather a political issue” that violates the principles of partnership, consensus, and balance among the different components of Iraq.
“This is a sort of pressuring and bellicosity.”
Barzani, who previously served as the president of Kurdistan Region, said the move has proven that the Iraqis have already decided to oppose the Kurdistan Region in every situation, and that they use this logic to deal with the Constitution, the agreements, and the rights of the people of Kurdistan.
Barzani called on Kurdistan Region presidency, parliament, and government, as well as the political factions and Kurdish lawmakers in Baghdad, to convene soon and make a responsible decision that would draw a line for such behaviours in Baghdad.