Kurdistan's Prime Minister: what happened to 95 percent of the Iraqi budget?

Shafaq News/Kurdistan's Prime Minister, Masrour Barzani, said on Friday that the projects established in the Region were implemented with only five percent of Iraq's budget.

During his participation in the Manama Dialogue Forum in the Bahraini capital, Barzani said, "The Kurdistan Region has become an oasis of stability, but this was not without a price, and it was not achieved without massive sacrifices."

He indicated that all the projects of Kurdistan had been implemented in recent years at 5 percent of the Iraqi budget, "But what happened to the remaining 95 percent in Iraq?" he wondered.

On the issue of migration, he said "it is a global phenomenon and occurs everywhere," noting that the migrants who left the Kurdistan Region and went to the borders between Belarus and Poland held visas and spent money, and did not leave because of security risks or hunger."

He continued, "The key to ensuring our security in Kurdistan lies in establishing a system in Iraq that prevents any future prime minister from using force to settle political problems, and this means implementing the constitution."

"The Middle East and Iraq are stuck in differences instead of focusing on the common issues that unite each other." stressing the need to reformulate a new security system in the Middle East to include all countries in the region, including Iran.

Concerning the Kurdish-Kurdish dialogue in Rojava, Barzani explained, "Erbil encourages dialogue between the Kurds of Syria so that they can determine their future, but it is unfortunate that the Kurdistan Workers' Party obstructs this matter because it influences the local authorities."

The Prime Minister said that the efforts of the Iraqi government and other stakeholders to create acceptable living conditions to curb the re-emergence of ISIS are far from being achieved.

He also addressed the climate challenges facing the Region, saying, "Climate change has begun in the Middle East."