SULAIMANI (ESTA) — A delegation from the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) is expected to visit Sulaimani city next week to hold talks with political parties, a KDP source said on Friday.
The KDP leadership decided during its latest meeting to hold talks with Kurdish parties, including the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), after it failed to form a new Iraqi government along with the Sadrist Movement and Sunni Taqaddum Party.
A KDP source told Esta Media Network that a high-level delegation from the party would pay a visit to Sulaimani city next week.
“KDP’s deputy leader Nechirvan Barzani, who is also Kurdistan Region’s president, will head the delegation,” the source said.
The delegation’s visit comes as the selection of a new Iraqi president and the formation of a new government in Baghdad as well as Kurdistan oil exports deemed by the Iraqi federal court as unconstitutional and delays in employees’ payment in Sulaimani province have deteriorated relations between the Kurdish parties.
Authorities in Sulaimani have said the issue of delays in salaries in Sulaimani and Halabja provinces as well as Raparin and Garmian administrations is “political” and that it was an attempt to pressure the PUK to abandon the post of Iraqi president which it sees as its right to hold.
Under a power-sharing system designed to avoid sectarian conflict, Iraq’s president is a Kurd, its prime minister a Shia and its parliament speaker a Sunni.
A tripartite alliance between the KDP, the Sadrist Movement and Taqaddum Party selected KDP’s Rebar Ahmed as its candidate for the presidency.
The PUK nominated incumbent Barham Salih as its only candidate for the position.
Among other issues is the Iraqi oil ministry’s attempt to control revenue from the Region by asking oil and gas firms operating there to sign new contracts with state-owned marketer SOMO rather than the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
Baghdad’s persistent attempts to implement the ruling have the capacity to worsen already fraught tensions with Erbil.
