The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has informed the United States that it has given Baghdad a 48-hour deadline to decide on funding salaries for civil servant employees in the Kurdistan Region. Should this deadline not be met, Erbil indicated it would pursue alternative options. Simultaneously, the KRG's negotiating team, which had been in Baghdad for discussions with the federal government, departed the Iraqi capital for Erbil. In related developments, U.S. President Donald Trump, in a letter sent Wednesday to Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani, called for "balanced and fair" trade relations. The letter also stated that Washington would impose 30 percent tariffs on all Iraqi products exported to the U.S.
