ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The Kurdish delegation that visited the holy Shiite city of Najaf hopes historic ties between Kurds and Shiites can be strengthened. They met with senior Shiite clerics on Thursday for dialogue about good governance and resolving deep-rooted issues between Iraq’s communities. The multi-party Kurdish delegation, which made the trip as party representatives and not on behalf of the KRG, first met with Ali Mousavi, head of the Shiite Waqf (Endowment) Bureau, and later with Ali Bashir Najafi, a Grand Ayatollah of Iraq. The Kurds asked Mousavi to use their authority over Iraq’s Shiite institutions to encourage public support among the Shiite population for Kurdistan, PUK spokesperson Saadi Ahmad Pira told Rudaw. He added that they hope the Shiite institutions, the Marja (highest Shia legal authority), Husseiniyahs (ceremonial centres), and Hawza (seminaries), will play a major role in solving the outstanding issues between the Kurdistan Region and the Iraqi federal government. Pira explained that he hopes the Shiite eulogy reciters in the Husseiniyahs will not stand against the Kurds, but rather side with them because Kurds are oppressed. With the onset of the Kurdish independence referendum, Shiite Husseiniyahs were used by politicians and eulogy reciters to lambast the Kurds and Kurdistan, something Pira criticized on Tuesday in a press conference. A 20-member Kurdish delegation composed of different parties and members of MERI (Middle East Research Institute) arrived in Najaf on Wednesday to participate in panels and visit the Shiite leaders. The events were organized by MERI and the Al-Rafidain Center for Dialogue. “There is another aspect too pertaining to the historic relations between Kurds and Shiites. This historic relation we believe was jeopardized in social and public terms. This is truly a psychological aspect. We needed this rapprochement,” Jaafar Imniki, deputy speaker of the Kurdistan Region Parliament, told Rudaw. Imniki posited that all Kurds, whether they are Shiite or Sunni, have respect for Shiites. “We were both on the same front, we were both oppressed, and we both have a mutual history of struggling against dictatorship and oppression,” he said. This month marks the 30th anniversary of uprisings in both the Kurdistan Region and in the mostly Shiite areas of southern Iraq following the Persian Gulf War. A prominent Shiite cleric, Mohammed Baqir Sadir, issued a fatwa during the Saddam Hussein era prohibiting the killing of Kurds. Imniki reminded people of the cooperation between Peshmerga and Hashd al-Shaabi forces in liberating Mosul, asking “Why should a fracture suddenly appear?” He blamed wrong policies and political misunderstandings as the main causes for the fracture.
