UNAMI chief hopes Erbil-Baghdad financial deal holds
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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Mohamed al-Hassan, head of the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), said on Saturday he hopes the new agreement between Erbil and Baghdad will be a final settlement of long-running disputes over finances and oil.
"God willing, it will be an agreement that ends all disputes and we won't return to this topic because it affects the rights of ordinary people in Iraq. I have a firm conviction that with the wisdom of Iraq's leaders, whether in Baghdad or Erbil or elsewhere, we hope for all the best," Hassan told Rudaw's Ziyad Ismail.
Earlier this month, the federal and regional governments reached a new deal over finances and oil. Several similar deals have failed in the past. The Iraqi government approved the agreement during a cabinet meeting and subsequently resumed the disbursement of the salaries of the Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) civil servants.
Tensions between Baghdad and Erbil escalated in late May when the federal finance ministry suspended transfers of funds, saying the KRG had exceeded its 12.67 percent share of the federal budget and failed to deliver oil to Iraq's State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO). The freeze affected more than 1.2 million public sector employees in the Kurdistan Region.
Iraq will hold parliamentary elections in November.
The UNAMI chief said they have "a fundamental and active role in these elections. We call on Iraqis to be honest and trustworthy in their electoral decision."
UNAMI's mission in Iraq will expire at the end of the year.
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