Iraq sent money to pay salaries of employees in the Kurdish region Monday for the first time since 2014, The Baghdad government said, although a dispute over how much it will send the Kurds in future remains unresolved.
The 2018 budget, passed in Parliament earlier this month despite a boycott by Kurdish lawmakers, calls for the 17 percent of total revenue allocated to the Kurds to be cut in line with the region’s share of Iraq’s population, which is disputed.
The Kurdish region still conducts independent oil sales, although it has far less oil to sell now that it no longer controls Kirkuk.
“The federal Finance Ministry transferred a cash sum of 317 billion Iraqi dinars ($267 million) to the region’s Finance Ministry,” Baghdad government spokesman Saad al-Hadithi said.
Hadithi said the transfer would cover the Kurdistan Regional Government’s salaries for a month, for employees of all ministries and for the peshmerga Kurdish security forces.
Monday’s agreement represents a step toward normalizing relations between the central government and the autonomous Kurdish region, which held a vote for independence last year that the central government swiftly crushed.
