<p style="text-align: left;"> “The federal government must not use the Kurdistan Region’s budget and financial issues as a political card and a punishment against the Region’s people,” said Barzani during a meeting with Special Representative for Iraq of the UN Secretary-General Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert.</p> <p style="text-align: left;">“This is against the constitutional rights of the Kurdistan Region and its people,” he added.</p> <p style="text-align: left;">On April 16, the federal Council of Ministers froze budget transfers to the KRG after patience ran out with Erbil’s failure to live up to its obligations under the 2019 federal budget law, in particular its refusal to send oil to Baghdad for export.</p> <p style="text-align: left;">In response, the KRG has said that it will start transferring 250,000 barrels of oil per day, as required by the budget law. However, with the drop in the global price of oil, the offer is worth far less than it was just a few weeks ago, NRT reported.</p> <p style="text-align: left;">“At the beginning of the ninth cabinet’s term, we visited Baghdad and expressed our sincere aims to solve problems according to the constitutional principles and we presented many recommendations to solve the outstanding problems,” Barzani said.</p> <p style="text-align: left;">Referring to a deal reached between Baghdad and Erbil in December, the prime minister stated that the KRG had showed good faith, but that “Baghdad officials were not ready to implement it.”</p> <p style="text-align: left;">Reporter’s code: 50101</p>