Shafaq News- Erbil/ Baghdad

Kurdish President Nechirvan Barzani on Tuesday said the tensions between the Kurdistan Region’s two main parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), blocked a meeting with President Nizar Amedi.

The two main Kurdish parties have recently clashed over Iraq’s presidency. The KDP maintains it has the right to nominate the president based on electoral results, citing its higher vote share and larger number of parliamentary seats in the October 2021 elections. The PUK, however, views the position as its established share under longstanding power-sharing arrangements, treating the presidency as a matter of political precedent rather than electoral arithmetic.

Read more: KDP, PUK, and the fracturing of Kurdish political partnership in Iraq

Following talks with Supreme Judicial Council head Faiq Zidan in Baghdad, Barzani told reporters that Kurdish parties must establish a framework to resolve their internal disputes, noting that efforts are underway through a political council formed by the Kurdistan Region Presidency. “We have full respect and appreciation for the president, who is one of us... We may not visit him during this round, but there will be a meeting in the future after resolving the existing problem.”

On relations with Baghdad, Barzani said political forces are actively engaged in efforts to resolve disputes, emphasizing that all outstanding issues should be addressed within the federal framework, including the federal budget, oil exports, oil and non-oil revenues, and the degree to which both Erbil and Baghdad have honored previous agreements.

“Baghdad is our capital and our strategic depth; what we have not been able to resolve in the past must now be resolved here.”

Read more: President Barzani comes to Baghdad with more than Erbil's demands