NAJAF, Iraq — With seemingly nowhere else to turn, beleaguered Iraqi Kurds are seeking salvation through Shiite religious authorities. The crisis between Iraq's central government in Baghdad and the Kurdish headquarters in Erbil appears to have laid waste to all other internal and external attempts to resolve the repercussions of the Sept. 25 Kurdish independence referendum.

Baghdad's latest salt in Erbil's wounds came March 4, when it cut the Kurds' share of the 2018 general budget to 12.6% from 17%. The Kurds then threatened to withdraw from the political process, as Massoud Barzani, the former president of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), said this reduction was “undermining the rights of the Kurds.”

Masoud Haidar, a parliament member for the Kurdistan Alliance, on March 3 called on Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani to help the Kurds in their plight. Sistani is well-known among Shiite parties, so the Kurds hope he will pressure Baghdad and resolve the situation.

On Feb. 28, a Kurdish delegation consisting of 20 members from several Kurdish political parties visited Najaf with the intention of meeting with Sistani, to no avail. However, Sistani’s representatives and clerics close to him did meet with the delegation in a closed session that day at Rafidain Center for Dialogue in Najaf province. According to a source from the delegation who spoke with Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, the delegation stressed that the strategic alliance between Kurds and Shiites still stands: Both co-wrote the constitution and fought together against the regime of Saddam Hussein as well as the Islamic State (IS).