PM Masrour Barzani calls for ‘full implementation’ of new budget deal in New Year’s message
Prime Minister Barzani’s remarks came in his New Year message, in which he addressed the hardships the Kurdistan Region and the world witnessed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and financial disputes with the Iraqi government.
The KRG and the Iraqi government recently reached a new budget deal for 2021, in which the autonomous region’s financial rights and entitlements are specified. The deal came following two-week-long negotiations between a KRG team and their Iraqi counterparts.
“I hope the agreement [is] fully implemented,” Prime Minister Barzani said, as he urged Iraq’s political parties to disallow “using the Kurdistan Region’s financial rights and entitlements be used as a political pressure card against the disadvantaged people of Kurdistan.”
“We never give up upon our constitutional rights,” Prime Minister Barzani reiterated.
The Kurdistan Region has faced several challenges in 2020, namely the coronavirus pandemic and financial distress, which is caused by fiscal disputes with its Iraqi counterpart.
In order to confront the challenges, the KRG’s ninth cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Barzani, has undertaken a progressive reform plan to overcome the existing challenges.
Barzani also reiterated his cabinet’s “continuing efforts to maintain reform and bettering the people’s livelihoods, state of law, justice, and stability.”
In another aspect of his message, Prime Minister Barzani urged the people of the Kurdistan Region and the political parties to “set aside their differences and defend the Kurdistan Region’s land, its federal entity, and its achievements.”
At the end of his message, the Kurdish leader congratulated the people of the Kurdistan Region and hoped for a “stronger, more prosperous, and developed Kurdistan.”
Editing by Karzan Sulaivany
