“The plane crash is the latest development in the recent streak of bad luck Moscow has faced in Syria, coming on top of mounting pressure over the situation in Eastern Ghouta and US considerations of a possible new strike on positions of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad over renewed charges he has used chemical weapons,” Suchkov writes in his March 9 article. “With just nine days until the presidential election in Russia, such moves are largely perceived as a product of ‘American efforts to poke Putin in the eye,’ but a bigger worry in Moscow is how far it can all go before endangering Russia’s efforts in Syria.”
Abadi added in remarks March 7 that Baghdad would only pay “a portion” of KRG salaries, because the Kurdistan Region exports approximately 300,000 barrels of oil per day, about 10% of all Iraqi exports. The government of Iraq will conclude an audit of KRG ministries prior to issuing payments.
The pending deal on the airports follows a March 4 vote by the Iraqi Council of Representatives (parliament) to reduce the Kurdistan Region’s percentage of the Iraqi federal budget from 17% to 12.5%. The country’s total general budget of approximately $88 billion did not include funding for the Iraqi peshmerga.
