ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – A high-level meeting between the Kurdish Prime Minister and his Iraqi counterpart in Baghdad on Sunday ended with an agreement to form a joint committee to continue talks between both sides to seek a solution for their budgetary dispute.

A Kurdish delegation led by PM Nechirvan Barzani met Iraqi premier Haider Abadi in Baghdad to discuss the unpaid Peshmerga funds as part of Iraq’s defense system as well as Kurdistan’s share of the fedral health budget.

According to Hevidar Ahmed, Rudaw correspondent in Baghdad the Kurdish team did not succeed in securing any funding for the Peshmerga as the Iraqi prime minister claimed that his government is only able to pay its own employees for another four months at most.

The planned joint committee however is to go ahead and meet fortnightly to discuss disputes between Erbil and Baghdad.

Both sides are expected to continue talks about the long-anticipated offensive for Mosul in which Kurdish forces are to play a key role from the northern front.

Rudaw