“In the phone call, both sides emphasized the continuation of their strategic alliance and efforts to speed up the formation of a national majority government,” read a statement from Barzani’s office.
The phone call came after earlier in the day, the Sadrist bloc, the main winner of the latest parliamentary elections in Iraq, announced that it would suspend talks with political parties regarding the formation of the next government and will not attend the legislature’s meeting on Monday to elect a new president.
Iraq held snap elections on October 10. The speaker of parliament was elected last month following a deal between Kurdistan Region’s ruling KDP, Sadrist bloc and most Sunnis. The legislature is scheduled to meet on February 7 to elect a new president for the country. The KDP has fielded Hoshyar Zebari, who has previously held several positions in Baghdad, and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) has nominated the incumbent Iraqi President Barham Salih for the position.
According to a long-standing customary agreement, the three main leadership positions in the Iraqi government are divided among Kurds, Shiites, and Sunnis. Kurds get the presidency, Shiites get the premiership, and Sunnis get the parliamentary speaker. Among Kurds, the PUK has held on to the presidency position since 2005.
The KDP seemed to hold a stronger position over the PUK for the presidency race given their alliance with the largest parliamentary bloc, however, Sadr on Friday called on members of his bloc to not vote for the KDP candidate for the Iraqi presidency if he does not meet necessary requirements.
“If the candidate of our ally, the [Kurdistan] Democratic Party, for the President of the Republic does not meet all the conditions … I call on the representatives [MPs] of reform to not vote for him,” the prominent Shiite cleric said in a tweet.
Zebari served as the Iraqi finance minister from 2014 to 2016 before he was removed from his position following a secret parliamentary vote of no-confidence over alleged corruption and misuse of public funds. At the time, Zebari denied all allegations against him, calling them political, and he was later cleared of these charges.
At the time, Zebari denied all allegations against him, however out of 249 MPs present in the meeting, 158 voted against him.
Sadr’s tweet came as the cleric has on several occasions called for a government that is away from corruption and has also promised reform.
Zebari told Iraqi state media on Friday that his party's alliance with Sadr is "strong and coherent."
