Iraq's federal government reaches temporary solution on regional revenue-sharing, however constitutional rift remains

Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein has revealed that a "temporary" agreement has been reached between the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the federal government in Baghdad concerning the handover of the Kurdistan Region's oil, a breakthrough in one of the most contentious and persistent disputes plaguing relations between the two capitals. However, in a wide-ranging and detailed interview with Al-Shams channel, the Foreign Minister, who is also a senior member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) Politburo, framed the deal as a short-term fix that fails to address the profound and systemic constitutional disagreements over federalism, revenue sharing, and regional authority that continue to define the Erbil-Baghdad dynamic. [ . . . ] The same dynamic of temporary resolution and underlying disagreement applies to the equally contentious issue of non-oil revenues. Hussein highlighted a fundamental divergence in constitutional interpretation that lies at the heart of this dispute. "There is a misunderstanding here that goes back to the constitution and the laws," he told Al-Shams channel. "In Baghdad, the understanding is that all revenues must be returned to the federal government, and this is what is being discussed. In the Region, there is an understanding that there are internal revenues that belong to the Region and other revenues that belong to the federal government."
Read the full article here: Kurdistan24