ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani said in his New Year congratulatory message on Friday that it is “necessary to turn a new page in Iraq,” a day after Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi hailed his cabinet’s relations with the Region. “In contributing to a peaceful and prosperous Iraq, together, with unity and common purpose, we can overcome difficulties and crises. It is necessary to turn a new page in Iraq, to draw on lessons learned and to build on past experiences, to truly understand the challenges and to have [the] serious will to address the problems,” Barzani said in the message. “Mutual respect and true partnership in the political process and governance are now needed more than ever to restore trust, peace and stability for all Iraqi communities,” he added. Barzani’s call came one day after Kadhimi told his ministers in a cabinet meeting on Thursday that Erbil-Baghdad relations during his short tenure have been the “best” in nearly two decades. “Our ties with the Kurdistan Region of Iraq during this government was the best since 2003, and we are proud of this relationship. The tensions were few and we had many initiatives,” Kadhimi said. Disputes over oil and the share of the federal budget as well as control over areas disputed between Erbil and Baghdad have been among the main factors behind both governments’ tensions in the last decade. The Kurdistan Region’s independence referendum in late 2017 saw Erbil-Baghdad relations plummet to their worst-ever level. However, the relations have gradually improved later, especially after the inauguration of Kadhimi in May 2020. Since then, he has enjoyed support from Kurdish leadership. Iraq held parliamentary elections on October 10. The final results were ratified by Iraq’s Federal Supreme Court on Monday, ending disputes over the results. Iraqi President Barham Salih signed a decree on Thursday for the new parliament to hold its first meeting on January 9. Negotiations over the formation of a new cabinet continue. It is not clear which parties will be able to form the largest alliance to be assigned by Salih to form a new cabinet as Shiite political parties have been divided into two blocks - Sadrist block and pro-Iran parties - and Kurds and Sunnis have not announced which block they will support.
