KDP hosts meeting with Kurdish parties as tensions with Baghdad escalate
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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) is hosting a meeting of several Kurdish political parties on Saturday as tensions escalate with Baghdad over salaries and energy deals, though key opposition parties declined to attend.
The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), Kurdistan Socialist Democratic Party (KSDP), Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU), Kurdistan Communist Party, and the Kurdsat wing of the Change Movement (Gorran) are all attending the meeting in Pirmam, Erbil province.
But major opposition parties such as the New Generation Movement - the strongest opposition party in the Kurdistan Region - the National Stance Movement (Halwest), the People's Front (Baray Gal), the Kurdistan Justice Group (Komal), and the Zargata wing of Gorran refused to attend.
Tensions between Baghdad and Erbil escalated after the Iraqi finance ministry on Wednesday announced that it would no longer send the Kurdistan Region's financial entitlements from the federal budget, including the salaries of over one million civil servants of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
Baghdad accused Erbil of failing to hand over its oil and non-oil revenues and claimed that the KRG has received its full share of the federal budget for 2025. The Iraqi government has paid the salaries of the KRG's civil servants for the first four months this year, but the finance ministry's announcement raises questions about what will happen for the remainder of the year.
The KDP warned Baghdad on Thursday that it would take a 'serious stance' if it fails to pay the May salaries by June 6, which coincides with the Islamic holiday Eid al-Adha.
Kawa Mahmood, secretary-general of the Kurdistan Communist Party, told Rudaw on Saturday that the meeting in Pirmam 'is a start to confronting the challenges and parties should not be an obstacle to forming an internal Kurdistani dialogue.'
He said that the political parties should follow the lead of the Kurdish bloc in the Iraqi parliament that issued a joint statement condemning the federal government's stance.
'It is encouraging that all Kurdish factions in the Iraqi parliament took a unified position regarding the salary issue. This creates a good ground for us to be able to form a unified national position,' Mahmood said.
Shakhawan Abdullah, deputy speaker of the Iraqi parliament and a KDP member, said on Thursday that it is time for Kurds to withdraw from the Iraqi government. The KDP is a member of Iraq's governing State Administration Coalition, which includes the Shiite-led Coordination Framework, the Sunni Sovereignty Alliance, and the PUK.
The KDP, PUK, New Generation, KIU, and Komal issued a joint statement on Thursday calling on Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani to "intervene urgently to release the salaries of employees in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, and not to link citizens' rights to any political or technical disputes."
They said that payment of salaries "is not a favor but a constitutional and humanitarian entitlement… and delaying or stopping it is considered a collective punishment borne only by the employee. We also demanded a radical and permanent solution to the salary problem."
The finance ministry's decision to cease payments to Erbil came on the heels of the KRG inking two new oil and gas deals with American firms, drawing the ire of Iraq's oil ministry, which said all energy deals must go through Baghdad and has taken legal action against the KRG.
Ranja Jamal contributed to this report.
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