Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi has agreed with his Kurdish counterpart Masrour Barzani on a financial settlement that would pave the way for a new round of negotiations.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) announced Sunday that Barzani discussed over the phone with Kadhimi the main steps to resolve disputes.
Iraq will send some 320 billion dinars ($268 million) to the KRG as soon as possible, it said in a statement.
Both sides stressed the need to proceed with negotiations and the outcomes achieved during the past months between both sides, the statement added.
Barzani said he discussed with the Iraqi premier the differences between Erbil and Baghdad.
“We have also pointed during this phone call to the progress made in the ongoing talks for few months now…in accordance with the understanding reached earlier on salaries of civil servants in Kurdistan,” he said a post on his official Facebook page.
The deal follows days of tension between Erbil and Baghdad as both sides traded blame for the outstanding issues between them for years.
The tensions led to the intervention of Iraqi President Barham Salih, who urged both parties to return to the dialogue table.
Head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party's (KDP) bloc at the Iraqi parliament Vian Sabri told Asharq Al-Awsat that Barzani and Kadhimi stressed that the Iraqi constitution acts as a basis for resolving all pending issues and striking any agreement.
