TODAY’S MESOP EDITORIAL : WHO FINANCES WHOM ? – KRG Finance Deputy Minister: US supports Baghdad over Erbil

20.05.2014 – Shwan Barzinji – BasNews, Erbil – In an exclusive interview with BasNews, the Finance Deputy Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Rashid Tahir talks about the financial issues between the KRG and the Federal Government of Baghdad.Tahir explained that during the last visit made by the US ambassador’s delegation to the KRG Ministry of Finance the deputy minister stressed the need to see the realities of Iraq and not support Baghdad blindly.

“We have told them that we have followed the constitution but that Baghdad withholding the federal budget is a political stance showing that Baghdad wants a strong central government and does not want to share the power or behave as a federal nation,” said Tahir.

Regarding the US stance, Tahir said: “they came here to ask us to start negotiation with Baghdad and we told them that we encourage the agreement but we will not compromise on our rights. Baghdad wrongly explained the case for them. So we told them that if the US wants to, they can solve the issue.”

Tahir believes US is not serious about solving the issue since the US has always taken Baghdad’s side in the disputes between Baghdad and Erbil.

In terms of the Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki’s statements about not sending KRG budget, Tahir noted: “They talk in a way that suggests that Kurdistan has developed as a result of Iraq’s budget. In terms of economic development the Kurdistan Region is 10 years ahead of Baghdad. All they do pressurize Kurdistan to be under Baghdad’s control, but we will not allow that.”

He mentioned that negotiations have stopped for now and hoped that soon the door for more dialogue would open. According to Tahir’s speech, the federal govern should have sent six trillion IQD for KRG government employees but they have only sent one trillion IQD. “We continuously do our best to pay the government employees salaries through internal loans and income for the months that they have not been paid yet. We are making it as quick as possible and it is directly related to how much income and loan we can get from the internal sources to pay the employees’ salaries,” added Tahir.