Kurdistan delegation arrives in Baghdad overland as airspace closure enters 2nd week
Shafaq News- Baghdad
A Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) economic delegation arrived in Baghdad on Sunday via road, unable to fly in after Iraq extended its airspace closure for another week, carrying four unresolved files for talks with the federal government and political leaders set to begin tomorrow.
Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) member Wafa Mohammed Karim told Shafaq News the agenda covers civil servant salaries, Kurdish oil exports, and the ASYCUDA customs system, describing the visit as a follow-up to push through solutions Baghdad had previously pledged to deliver. Regional exports have already taken a hit from the broader conflict engulfing the area, he noted.
Salary payments, oil exports, and customs systems have festered as unresolved Baghdad-Erbil files for years, and the war has sharpened their urgency, with Kurdistan cities facing near-daily drone and missile strikes on military and civilian targets alike.
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The economic delegation is not the only Kurdish mission in Baghdad. An informed government source told Shafaq News that a separate political delegation, led by KDP Political Bureau Secretary Fazil Mirani, has been holding parallel talks covering a broader and more sensitive dossier, including the deadlock over the Kurdish presidential candidate, the targeting of Erbil by armed factions, implementation of the Korean agreement to supply the Region with air defense systems to protect the Khor Mor gas field, the disputed territories, the situation of minorities in the Nineveh Plain, and financial allocations for displaced persons previously funded by the KRG pending federal reimbursement.
The source said caretaker Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani may approve the air defense request because Khor Mor is an Iraqi field. The Kurdish delegation also pressed for firm deterrence against factions launching drone attacks on the Region.
Iraq's Civil Aviation Authority extended the full airspace closure, barring all incoming, outgoing, and transit flights, through April 10, the longest suspension since the US-Israeli offensive against Iran began. The ban, previously renewed every 72 hours, has now been consolidated into a single week-long order effective from noon Friday.
