Nechirvan Barzani Urges Iraq to Build Future on Constitution

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) - In Sulaimani, Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani opened a two-day economic summit on Thursday, with a call for Iraq to anchor its future in constitutional governance rather than in the balance of force. Later, at a press conference, he revealed that the Region’s Peshmerga forces are set to be fully unified in the near future. 

Addressing the opening session of the Sulaimani Economic Summit, which is scheduled to run for two days, Barzani said the Kurdistan Region's continued development requires a broader and stronger role for the private sector. He said the government's task is to provide a legal, administrative and security environment capable of attracting investment.

Barzani noted that strong infrastructure and industrial capacity have been built across the Region in recent years, but said the time has come to shift from a consumption-driven economy toward one that is productive and diversified, by directing more investment toward agriculture, tourism and other sectors. He stressed that political disagreements should not be allowed to stand in the way of trade and investment, and said the Kurdistan Region needs to reach a clear constitutional framework with the federal government covering finance, customs and taxation.

Turning to the broader Iraqi political landscape, Barzani said Iraq should not be a country in which any single component relies on force, numbers or position to protect itself, but rather one in which all components rely on the constitution. He added that Iraq's Kurdish, Arab, Turkmen, Christian and Yazidi communities alike need assurance that their rights are fixed in law and will not shift with changes in government or shifts in the balance of power.

On the long-unresolved disputes between Erbil and Baghdad, Barzani said issues involving the federal budget, public-sector salaries, oil, gas and the division of powers require permanent constitutional solutions — ones that safeguard the interests and rights of all citizens, in Iraq and in the Kurdistan Region alike. He said the objective was never for Erbil to prevail over Baghdad, or Baghdad over Erbil, but rather for Iraq and its constitution to succeed, since the strength of both sides lies within a federal Iraq and a strong Region operating inside that framework. The time has come, he said, to end the disagreements and resolve them through dialogue, the constitution and national partnership.

Later Thursday, following his address to the summit, Barzani held a press conference in which he reviewed recent security and political developments in the Kurdistan Region. He disclosed that all Peshmerga forces have now been organized under the framework of the Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs and will be fully merged into a single command in the near future, adding that further details would be made public for the Region's residents in the coming days.

Barzani also offered an assessment of the domestic political climate, saying relations between the Region's political parties — particularly the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan — have shown improvement and growth compared with the past. He expressed hope that the political atmosphere would continue moving toward positive outcomes.