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Kurdish MPs urge KRG to deliver oil to Baghdad

January 19, 2021 at 1:54 pm

Oil tankers drive in convoy along a highway close to the Dora oil refinery in southern Baghdad on November 02, 2008 [ALI YUSSEF/AFP via Getty Images]

The parliamentary bloc of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan on Monday demanded the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq to start delivering oil to the federal government in Baghdad, in accordance with the draft fiscal budget for 2021, Anadolu Agency reported.

“We urge the Kurdistan Regional Government to immediately start the delivery of oil agreed upon with the federal government as per the draft federal budget law, to ensure the continuation of paying the salaries of the region’s employees for this month and the coming months, after approving the budget, and as an initiative to demonstrate goodwill and restore confidence between the governments of Baghdad and the region,” the bloc announced in a statement.

The bloc called on the federal government to fulfil its obligations and pay the salaries of the region’s employees, confirming that it would provide the grounds to solve many of the outstanding issues between the two parties.

On 14 December, the Kurdistan region agreed to deliver 250,000 barrels of oil per day to the Iraqi oil marketing company SOMO, in return for the payment of the employees’ salaries in the KRG.

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