Major Shia parties to visit Kurdistan, seek alliance with Kurds
“We are waiting to see who is most in line with the Kurds’ wishes.”
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Two Shia delegations are set to visit the Kurdistan Region next week to seek an alliance with the region’s leading parties, sources have told Kurdistan 24.
The delegations consist of Nouri al-Maliki’s State of Law and Muqtada al-Sadr’s Sairoon. Both coalitions are vying to enter a deal with the two leading parties in the Kurdistan Region, namely the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).
The source did not specify when the delegations would visit the semi-autonomous region.
“We are waiting to see who is most in line with the Kurds’ wishes,” Saadi Ahmed Pira, the PUK spokesperson, told Kurdistan 24 on Wednesday.
The KDP and PUK leadership have agreed on a National (Kurdish) Project—the full details of which will be announced soon after the Eid al-Adha holidays—to negotiate with Baghdad and form a government.
On Sunday, the President of the KDP met with a delegation of Sunni leaders, represented by the National Front Coalition, to discuss the formation of the new Iraqi government.
Khamis al-Khanjar, the leader of the coalition, later spoke with Kurdistan 24 and affirmed that they were also seeking guarantees before arriving at a decision.
The two leading parties have also called on other entities from the Kurdistan region to join their alliance which is based upon the representation of Kurdish interests and the respect of constitutional rights.
Four parties in the Kurdistan Region have rejected the national election’s results and the recently-concluded partial manual recount that was held in response to widespread allegations of fraud.
The largest bloc needs to hold 165 seats out of a total 329 to form a majority government.
Editing by Nadia Riva