The State Council has postponed its opinion regarding the disputes between Erbil and Baghdad to the beginning of next week, in the hope that a representative of the Kurdistan Region will participate in the meeting. It appears that this council does not want, as the Federal Supreme Court has done in the past, to become entangled in the political disputes between the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and Baghdad or be seen as taking sides when issuing decisions.

Due to differences of opinion among the members of the State Council, the council was unable to finalize and submit its view on the Erbil-Baghdad disputes regarding Kurdistan’s oil revenues.

Today marked the fourth consecutive day that the council failed to submit its opinion on this issue, which had been referred to it by Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani and the Federal Council of Ministers.

The State Council has postponed giving its opinion on this key point of contention between Erbil and Baghdad until the beginning of next week (Sunday), so that the KRG’s representative might also participate in the meeting.

It had originally been scheduled that on Tuesday of this week—coinciding with the regular meeting of the Federal Council of Ministers—the State Council would return its opinion to the federal government.

On Monday, the council requested that two advisors from the KRG’s Ministries of Finance and Justice attend the session to help finalize the decision. However, so far, no representative of the KRG has participated in the council’s meetings, and it remains unclear whether one will attend on Sunday as expected.

Yesterday, the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Council of Ministers held a meeting about its disputes with the federal government over oil revenues. In its statement regarding the Federal Council of Ministers’ decision to refer the matter to the State Council, the KRG stressed:

“We reaffirm our constitutional and legal position on the collection of oil revenues and the designation of shares in the federal treasury, based on Article (12/Second-d) and (21/Second) of the Federal Budget Law, and Article 29 of the Federal Financial Management Law, as well as Section Three of the Federal Supreme Court’s Decision No. 224 of 2024/2/21. All of these are legal and federal rulings, and in clear and explicit language they organize the collection of domestic revenues, earmark a share for the federal treasury, and also designate a share for the Kurdistan Region. This was also reaffirmed in the KRG’s latest official memorandum submitted to the federal government.”

Because the State Council must give an opinion on the Erbil-Baghdad dispute over Kurdistan’s oil revenues, and since this is the first time the council is directly involved in a dispute between the two governments, it does not want to fall into the fate of the Federal Supreme Court, whose president was forced to resign due to political pressure. Instead, the council seeks to maintain neutrality in its decision-making and present itself as an impartial institution—especially at a time when Iraq is heading toward new elections and the outlook for the country’s future governance remains uncertain.