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17% budget share agreed upon political
agreement: President Massoud Barzani
10.2.2008
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February 10, 2008
Erbil-Hewler, Kurdistan Region 'Iraq',--
Kurdistan region's President Massoud Barzani on
Friday said the region agreed to get the 17% share
of the 2008 general budget upon an earlier political
agreement till carrying out a census.
Speaking at a joint press conference with UK State
Minister for foreign affairs in Erbil’s Salah al-Din
resort,www.ekurd.net
Barzani said “the share
was endorsed by a political agreement though we
consider the share less than its real proportion."
“We accepted the current share till carrying out a
population census”, the Kurdish president
maintained.
Calling for sticking to the accord, Barzani referred
to the fact “any delay in approving the budget would
block the development in all Iraq and not only
Kurdistan”. |
Massoud Barzani, the President of the autonomous Regional
Government of Kurdistan 'Iraq' |
The parliamentary economic committee had proposed a
13% budget share for Kurdistan, but the regional
government insisted a higher share of 17%.
The total amount of Iraq's general budget for 2008
is $47 billion.
Barzani noted a Kurdish delegation would leave for
Baghdad to discuss the pending issues between the
Iraqi and regional Kurdish governments.
He added “the new Iraqi flag will be raised in
Iraq's Kurdistan region in the upcoming two days”.
The Iraqi parliament had approved with a majority of
votes - 110 out of 165 - in favor of a draft to
modify the national flag by removing the three stars
from the old flag and keeping the words Allahu Akbar
(God is Great).
Iraq's flag has three colors - red, white, and black
- and in the central white there were three stars
and the words Allahu Akbar, which were added by the
former regime of President Saddam Hussein months
before the 1991 Gulf War.
Iraqi Kurdistan Region President Massoud Barazani
had urged the central government in Baghdad to speed
up changing the Iraqi flag ahead of the Arab
parliamentarians’ conference to be hosted by Erbil
in February 2008.
VOI
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