Kurds leave talks with Iraqi PM nominee, blame his 'attitude' toward Kurdistan
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – A Kurdistan Region delegation that was in the Iraqi capital this week to hold government formation talks has cut its trip short and will return to Erbil after meetings with the embattled nation's Prime Minister-Designate Mohammed Allawi, a member of the team said Thursday.
“The attitude of Mohammed Allawi toward the Kurdistan Region delegation was not sufficiently appropriate,” Mohammed Sa’daddin told Kurdistan 24 when describing the sessions with the recently-nominated Iraqi official. Allawi, he said, “has not shown any respect for the political and legal standing of the Kurdistan Region.”
The meetings were “inconclusive,” Sa’daddin affirmed, adding that, despite all political entities participating in the government stressing that the Kurdistan Region must be part of the new cabinet, the Kurdish-led delegation would return to Erbil because of “the views and behavior of Allawi on the issues.”
The Kurdish official said that Allawi would not succeed in obtaining a vote of confidence from the national legislature, based on how he is currently handling the situation.
Allawi announced Wednesday that he had formed his “independent” cabinet and called on the national parliament to hold an extraordinary session next week to vote on it. A day later, outgoing caretaker Prime Minister Adil Abdul Mahdi issued a statement that also called on the legislature to hold a meeting on the issue.
March 2 marks a constitutional deadline for the vote, but such deadlines often go unmet in Iraq with few or no consequences.
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“It will be incorrect and inappropriate to continue to assume responsibilities after the date of March 2, 2020,” Abdul Mahdi, who has already ceased to chair weekly government meetings, said in an earlier statement.
On February 1, Iraq’s Kurdish President, Barham Salih, appointed Allawi to form a government after months of disputes between members of parliament. Abdul Mahdi resigned in late November after days of unprecedented violence against anti-government protesters by members of the security forces.
Pleading with Protesters
In a televised speech, Allawi said Wednesday that, if his government won parliament’s confidence, its first measure would be to investigate the killing of protesters and bring the perpetrators to justice. Similar inquiries by Abdul Mahdi have yielded no apparent results.
Iranian-backed militias of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) have been accused of carrying out part of the violence, targeting demonstrators and activists with sniper rifles and carrying out targeted assassinations. The political representation of these forces is among the backers of Allawi.
He has also promised to hold “free and fair early elections, far from the effects of money, weapons, and external interference,” and called on the demonstrators to give his government an opportunity despite “a crisis of confidence towards everything related to political affairs” that he blamed on the failures of his predecessors.
Allawi added, “All that was achieved was the result of your insistence and sacrifices, so congratulations to you on this great honor that your people and history will preserve for you.”
He finished with a promise that his government would be independent, a promise Iraqis are all too used to hearing.
Editing by John J. Catherine