Iraq
A delegation from the Islamic Dawa Party with Kurdish officials upon arrival at the Erbil International Airport. Photo: Erbil governor's media
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A delegation from the Islamic Dawa Party has arrived in Erbil to meet with President Masoud Barzani and other senior Kurdish leaders to discuss key political developments, most notably the formation of the next Iraqi government.
“The aim of the visit is to discuss Iraq’s current situation, as well as the posts of president and prime minister,” Erbil Governor Omed Khoshnaw told Rudaw.
Khoshnaw added that the delegation would meet President Barzani and other high-ranking officials in the Kurdistan Region.
The Dawa Party delegation is led by Abbas al-Bayati and includes Hassan al-Saneed, Kamal al-Saadi, Sadiq al-Bahadli, Amer al-Khuzaie, and Ahmed al-Mabriq.
Omran Kadhim, a member of the Dawa Party, said the visit aims to “strengthen political relations and discuss the issues surrounding the posts of president and prime minister.”
“Our Kurdish brothers are a major pillar of the Iraqi state. On key issues, they have an important role and clear viewpoints,” Kadhim said.
“We seek to unify the positions and visions of the parties regarding the posts of prime minister and president in order to reach a decision that benefits all sides,” he added.
The visit comes amid intensified political maneuvering to elect Iraq’s next president and appoint a new prime minister. Kurdish parties have so far failed to agree on a unified presidential candidate. Meanwhile, the nomination of Nouri al-Maliki - the Coordination Framework’s candidate for prime minister - appears to have faced opposition from Washington.
In its latest remarks on Maliki’s nomination, a spokesperson for the United States Department of State told Rudaw on Thursday that selecting him as Iraq’s next prime minister “would be a negative outcome for the Iraqi people” and would compel Washington to reassess the broader US-Iraq relationship.
Maliki currently leads the Islamic Dawa Party.
Iraq held legislative elections on November 11. Parliament convened on December 29 to elect its speaker and two deputies. Under the constitution, the president must be elected within 30 days of the first parliamentary session. Once sworn in, the president has 15 days to task the nominee of the largest parliamentary bloc with forming a government.
Since 2003, an informal power-sharing arrangement has allocated the speakership of parliament to Sunni Arabs, the premiership to Shiite Arabs, and the presidency to the Kurds.
The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) have each nominated candidates for the presidency. Their failure to agree on a joint nominee has reportedly contributed to a political deadlock. The PUK, which has largely held the mostly ceremonial post since 2003, argues that the presidency is its entitlement. The KDP has rejected this claim, reportedly offering the PUK other federal positions in exchange for the presidency.
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