ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – President Masoud Barzani vowed Monday that internal politics in Kurdistan, where parties are in deadlock over an extension to his term, would have no impact on Erbil’s war on the Islamic State group (ISIS).
“Whatever the result of the political process in Kurdistan, it will not affect the Peshmerga forces in the war against the ISIS terrorist group and the stability of the Kurdistan Region,” Barzani said in a meeting with a visiting Norwegian delegation, led by the ministers of foreign affairs and defense.
The president said that internal political issues among Kurdish factions over the extension were the derivatives of democracy and a democratic system.
Barzani promised that political issues would have no effect on the morale and strength of Peshmerga forces in their war against ISIS.
His comments came as Kurdistan’s political parties remained in deadlock over an extension that would be Barzani’s second: he has been president since 2005 and received a two-year extension in 2013. His current term expired on Thursday.
Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), which believes that changing leaders is not a good idea in the midst of the war with ISIS and other critical challenges, insists that the issue cannot be solved in parliament. It says the people must decide.
In 2009, Barzani was re-elected with nearly 70 percent of the vote, becoming the first directly-elected president in the region.
On Sunday, the main Kurdish political partied met in the city of Sulaimani, over an issue that has polarized the political parties, the parliament and Kurdish society.
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