NAN-F-
Salary
Baghdad, Jan. 4, 2018 (dpa/NAN) Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Thursday in Baghdad pledged that all civil servants in Iraqi Kurdistan will receive their salaries.
He made this known as strains between Baghdad and the autonomous region continued following the 2017 failed independence vote.
Al-Abadi made the promise at a meeting in Baghdad with a team of several political parties from Kurdistan.
“The central government is going ahead with guaranteeing salaries of civil servants in the territory of Kurdistan in a clear and fair way,” al-Abadi’s media office quoted him as saying, without elaborating.
Al-Abadi emphasised “ethnic and sectarian diversity” within a united Iraq, his office added in a statement.
The meeting comes a few weeks after Kurdistan saw mass protests regarding lack of services and delayed payment of salaries for state employees in the Kurdish region.
The Kurdistan government has struggled with an economic crisis since 2014, when the central government in Baghdad introduced cuts to the region’s budget.
The financial woes were aggravated after Iraqi forces took over the oil-producing city of Kirkuk following the withdrawal of Kurdistan’s Peshmerga forces in October.
Baghdad had moved to resume control of areas outside Kurdistan in response to Kurdistan’s unilateral referendum on independence, conducted in September.
Ties between Baghdad and Kurdistan have since deteriorated.
In reaction to the independence vote, Baghdad imposed sanctions on Kurdistan, including a ban on international flights to and from the territory. (dpa/NAN)
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Edited by Celine-Damilola Oyewole