Kurdish MP links unpaid salaries to Erbil-Baghdad political tensions

Shafaq News– Al-Sulaymaniyah

Two monthly salaries owed to public-sector employees in the Kurdistan Region have yet to be paid, a Kurdish lawmaker affirmed on Saturday, linking the delay to unresolved issues between Erbil and Baghdad.

Speaking at a press conference in Al-Sulaymaniyah, Gorran (Change) Movement lawmaker Jwanro Mohammed said Kurdish public employees received only ten salaries during 2025, after the salary file became “entangled in political disputes” between the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the federal government in Baghdad.

He criticized the KRG for failing to act decisively to protect employees’ incomes, urging it to use available financial resources to ensure salaries are paid on a regular basis.

The Kurdistan Region, according to Mohammed, continued to export oil independently until September 27, 2025, while total salary allocations reached 8.391 trillion Iraqi dinars (about $5.71B), yet employees did not receive their full annual entitlements.

Under the revenue-sharing agreement, the KRG must transfer oil and non-oil revenues to Baghdad in return for the Region’s financial entitlements, particularly salaries. The Kurdish government says Baghdad has paid only 41 percent of those dues over the past three years, describing the gap as an “investment blockade” that has intensified fiscal pressure.

Read more: Into 2026, Baghdad and Erbil face the same disputes—with higher stakes