SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region – To break the deadlock delaying the formation of the new Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) head Masoud Barzani wrote a conciliatory letter inviting the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) to resume dialogue following the party’s boycott of last week’s parliamentary session.
Addressed to the acting PUK chief Kosrat Rasool, Barzani said the parliamentary session of February 18 boycotted by the PUK, in which a speaker and two deputies were elected, was “neither a victory for the KDP, nor a defeat for the PUK.”
“I have called on the KDP politburo to arrange a meeting with the PUK politburo to resolve differences between the two [parties],” Barzani said in his letter, dated February 23.
The PUK and the KDP are the two main players in the KRG, which rules the semi-autonomous region in northern Iraq.
Rasool, who had consulted with members of the PUK politburo, welcomed Barzani’s initiative and responded that the PUK understood the gravity of the situation and his party was ready to sit down and resume dialogue.
Disputes between the KDP and PUK over government formation deepened after the two failed to reach a deal on the appointment of a governor for Kirkuk, prompting the PUK to boycott a parliamentary session they both had agreed on to elect a speaker of the parliament.
But the KDP along with the Change Movement (Gorran) and other parties convened the parliament last week and elected a KDP lawmaker as temporary speaker of the legislature until negotiations on power-sharing with the PUK are finalized.
Relations between the two parties have since been strained, but efforts are underway to repair them.
“There are efforts underway to reach an agreement between the two parties, and this will get clearer in our next meeting,” PUK leadership member Arez Abdulla told Rudaw.
The KDP and PUK differ on how to normalize the situation of Kirkuk and appoint a governor to the city.
“We think the situation of Kirkuk and other disputed areas addressed by Article 140 should be normalized and should reach an agreement with the Iraqi government and then appoint a governor to the city. But the PUK thinks a governor should first be appointed and then the situation of Kirkuk should be normalized,” KDP spokesperson Mahmud Mohammed told the KDP’s official website on February 18.
The PUK is now waiting for the KDP to set a date for their next meeting to address their remaining disputes over the formation of the next cabinet of the KRG and other issues between the two.