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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The KRG’s spokesman said Saturday that Erbil must receive more than 17 percent of an estimated $15 billion that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is expected to approve for Iraq, making the sum in excess of $2.55 billion.Constitutionally, 17 percent of the Iraqi government’s national budget must go to the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq.KRG spokesperson Safeen Dizayee told Rudaw English that Erbil has a strong case for receiving more than 17 percent of the money that Baghdad expects to receive from the IMF by June.“The sum must be more than this (17 percent), because from the beginning of 2014 until now Baghdad has not paid Erbil’s budget," Safeen Dizayee, spokesperson of the KRG, told Rudaw English.The head of the IMF's mission in Iraq, Christian Josz, said last month that his organization could approve a standby arrangement by early June, which would provide Iraq with $15 billion worth of international assistance over the course of the next three years.If Iraq gets the full amount it expects, that would mean that the KRG considers itself entitled to receive more than $2.55 billion, according to Dizayee’s comments.He noted that Kurdistan has been hosting nearly 2 million war refugees and internally displaced persons since 2014 and its share of the IMF money should take that into account."There should be understanding between both sides," he said.Kurdish officials have been in the United States to press their case with the IMF.The KRG’s deputy prime minister, Qubad Talabani, said in Washington that he had received “positive responses” from IMF officials about requests to ensure that Erbil is not left out the deal with Baghdad."There is a standby agreement that has been drawn up for Iraq and that is hopefully going to be a sizable sum that is going to be given to Iraq,” Talabani said.“We are also here to talk to our friends at the IMF to ensure that, out of any funds that go to Iraq, our portion in Kurdistan is weighed out,” he added.Dizayee stressed that during last month’s visit to Baghdad and Erbil by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and World Bank President Jim Yong Kim it was impressed upon Baghdad that funds going to the central government must be shared with the KRG for the upkeep of the huge number of refugees.The Kurdistan Region’s four provinces, with an estimated population of 5 million, have been straining under the burden of hosting nearly 2 million refugees and the internally displaced.