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Baghdad, Erbil Make Progress in Salary Negotiations

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammad Shia al-Sudani and Prime Minister of the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government, Masrour Barzani, during their meeting in Baghdad on Thursday (Media Office of the Iraqi Prime Minister)
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammad Shia al-Sudani and Prime Minister of the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government, Masrour Barzani, during their meeting in Baghdad on Thursday (Media Office of the Iraqi Prime Minister)
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Baghdad, Erbil Make Progress in Salary Negotiations

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammad Shia al-Sudani and Prime Minister of the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government, Masrour Barzani, during their meeting in Baghdad on Thursday (Media Office of the Iraqi Prime Minister)
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammad Shia al-Sudani and Prime Minister of the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government, Masrour Barzani, during their meeting in Baghdad on Thursday (Media Office of the Iraqi Prime Minister)

The prime minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq, Masrour Barzani, announced on Friday that his government had submitted two proposals to the federal government regarding the salaries of the region’s employees.

Speaking during a press conference at the end of his talks in Baghdad on Thursday with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammad Shia al-Sudani, Barzani said: “The delegation of the Kurdistan Regional Government came to Baghdad to defend the constitutional rights of the people of Kurdistan. We are reaching along with the federal government several solutions for current problems.”

While the statements issued by the Iraqi officials, with whom the Kurdish delegation held negotiations, confirmed that serious solutions would be reached to address the outstanding issues, attention is turning to the decisions that would be taken by the Federal Council of Ministers on Sunday, to support the negotiations that took place between the two sides.

The main differences revolve around oil, the budget, and employees’ salaries.

An agreement on the oil share seems difficult as a result of the divergent vision of the two parties regarding how to legislate the oil and gas law, which has been postponed since 2007.

Moreover, the region’s share of the general budget of the Iraqi state has been disputed since the adoption of the permanent Iraqi constitution in 2005, due to the lack of a population census.

As for the salary crisis, it emerged in 2014 when the then federal government refrained from handing over the salaries of the region’s employees unless the regional government paid the oil revenues sourced from within the regional territory.

Meanwhile, Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar announced on Friday that inspection of the oil pipeline from the Kurdistan region to the port of Ceyhan had been completed.

Türkiye has begun maintenance work on the pipeline that passes through a seismically active area, which Ankara says was damaged by floods resulting from the devastating earthquake that struck the southern region on February 6.

The Iraqi Kurdistan government has lost about $4 billion since oil flows to the Turkish port of Ceyhan via the pipeline stopped.

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Arab World

Turkish Foreign Minister Says No Room for Kurdish Militants in Syria's Future

A handout photo made available by the Turkish Foreign Ministry Press Office shows Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan (L) and Syria's opposition leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (R), also known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, shaking hands during their meeting in Damascus, Syria, 22 December 2024. EPA/TURKISH FOREIGN MINISTRY PRESS OFFICE
A handout photo made available by the Turkish Foreign Ministry Press Office shows Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan (L) and Syria's opposition leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (R), also known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, shaking hands during their meeting in Damascus, Syria, 22 December 2024. EPA/TURKISH FOREIGN MINISTRY PRESS OFFICE
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Turkish Foreign Minister Says No Room for Kurdish Militants in Syria's Future

A handout photo made available by the Turkish Foreign Ministry Press Office shows Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan (L) and Syria's opposition leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (R), also known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, shaking hands during their meeting in Damascus, Syria, 22 December 2024. EPA/TURKISH FOREIGN MINISTRY PRESS OFFICE
A handout photo made available by the Turkish Foreign Ministry Press Office shows Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan (L) and Syria's opposition leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (R), also known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, shaking hands during their meeting in Damascus, Syria, 22 December 2024. EPA/TURKISH FOREIGN MINISTRY PRESS OFFICE

Türkiye’s foreign minister said after meeting Syria's de facto leader in Damascus on Sunday that there was no room for Kurdish militants in Syria's future, calling for the YPG militia to disband.
Türkiye regards the YPG as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants who have fought an insurgency against the Turkish state for 40 years and are deemed terrorists by Ankara, Washington and the European Union.
Sunday's visit to Damascus by Hakan Fidan, the first foreign minister to visit Damascus since Bashar al-Assad's overthrow two weeks ago, came amid hostilities in northeast Syria between Turkish-backed Syrian fighters and the YPG, which spearheads the US-allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the northeast.
Speaking alongside Syria's de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, Fidan said he had discussed the YPG presence with the new Syrian administration and believed Damascus would take steps to ensure Syria's territorial integrity and sovereignty.
"In the coming period, the YPG must come to a point where it is no longer a threat to Syria's national unity," Fidan said, adding the YPG should disband.
The SDF played a key role defeating ISIS militants in 2014-2017 with US air support, and still guards ISIS fighters in prison camps. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned that the group would try to re-establish capabilities in this period.
Fidan said the international community was "turning a blind eye" to the "illegality" of the SDF and YPG's actions in Syria, but added that he believed US President-elect Donald Trump would take a different approach.
He said the new Syrian administration had told him during their talks that they could manage the ISIS prison camps, if needed.
In a Reuters interview on Thursday, SDF commander Mazloum Abdi acknowledged the presence of PKK fighters in Syria for the first time, saying they had helped battle ISIS and would return home if a total ceasefire was agreed with Türkiye. He denied any organizational ties with the PKK.
The SDF has been on the back foot since Assad's fall, with the threat of advances from Ankara and Türkiye-backed groups as it looks to preserve political gains made in the last 13 years, and with Syria's new rulers being friendly to Ankara.
Earlier, Türkiye's defense minister said Ankara believed Syria's new leadership, including the Syrian National Army (SNA) armed group which Ankara backs, will drive YPG fighters from all of the territory they occupy in the northeast.
Ankara, alongside Syrian allies, has mounted several cross-border offensives against the Kurdish faction in northern Syria and controls swathes of Syrian territory along the border, while repeatedly demanding that its NATO ally Washington halt support for the Kurdish fighters.
Ankara had for years backed opposition groups looking to oust Assad and welcomed the end of his family's brutal five-decade rule after a 13-year civil war. Türkiye also hosts millions of Syrian migrants it hopes will start returning home after Assad's fall, and has vowed to help rebuild Syria.
Fidan said all international sanctions imposed against Assad must be lifted as soon as possible to help Syria start rebuilding, offering Ankara's assistance on matters such as infrastructure development.
Sharaa told Sunday's press conference his administration would announce the new structure of the defense ministry and military within days.