The leader of the Sadrist movement, Muqtada al-Sadr, has warned that delaying the approval of the state budget would have serious consequences.
The Iraqi parliament has failed in the past three months to approve the 2021 fiscal budget over political differences, including an ongoing dispute on a clause, which stipulates that Iraqi Kurdistan hand over all its oil revenues to the federal government in exchange for Baghdad covering logistical fees and settling Erbil’s debt.
While the Iraqi government has resolved many contentious points in the crisis between Erbil and Baghdad, the parliamentary Shiite blocs rejected the proposed solutions.
On Sunday, all eyes turned to parliament, which convened to pass the budget. However, new disagreements arose, including on the dollar exchange rate, which was approved by some Shiite blocs such as Al-Fateh led by Hadi Al-Amiri, and State of Law led by Nuri Al-Maliki, and rejected by others, among them the Sadr-backed Sairoun bloc.
In remarks on Twitter, Sadr warned against the consequences of delaying the approval of the state budget, calling on all political parties to “disregard the differences and approve the budget as soon as possible.”
As for the Sairoun bloc, it issued a statement accusing “some parliamentary blocs” of turning the budget into an opportunity to settle political and electoral scores.
“Those are cheap tools that implement the agendas of foreign countries,” the statement added.
