ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani and his deputy Qubad Talabani met Monday afternoon to discuss resolving internal problems in the Region amid an ongoing boycott by Talabani’s party against Council of Ministers sessions.
“We both agreed to resolve all problems through dialogue and cooperation between all ministerial blocs within the cabinet. We also stressed the need to protect the internal harmony and unity in order to preserve the national interests and constitutional rights of the Kurdistan Region’s citizens,” reads a statement by Barzani’s office.
Tensions between the Kurdistan Region’s governing parties - the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) - has led to the PUK’s boycotting of weekly government meetings headed by PM Barzani. Talabani, who is deputy PM and a senior PUK member, has also stopped attending the meetings of the Council of Ministers for over six months.
Both parties have been at loggerheads in recent months over the Region’s parliamentary elections, the transparency of the oil and local income of the provinces under their influence, and the assassination of a former PUK colonel in Erbil in October.
The Kurdistan Region’s parliamentary elections are set to be held on November 18, over a year removed from its originally scheduled date. The Region was set to hold the elections last year, but it was postponed due to continued disagreements between the blocs over the current electoral law and the electoral commission.
The blocs are yet to reach an understanding on this issue, which could threaten a further delay the elections process.
Barzani and Talabani also “discussed the financial and administrative problems facing the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG)” in the meeting.
The KDP and PUK have been engaged in a war of words in the media by blaming the opposite site for the Kurdistan Region’s issues, including issues regarding the Region’s elections and financial woes.
Despite working together in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), the two parties have established control over different parts of the Region, often being referred to as the “Yellow Zone” and “Green Zone“. The KDP is dominant in Erbil and Duhok provinces, while the PUK rules Sulaimani and Halabja.
Additional reporting by Chenar Chalak
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