Nearly a year has passed since the parliamentary elections in Kurdistan, yet the influential parties have been unable to form a new government. This highlights the depth of the political disagreements and the complexities associated with the upcoming Iraqi general elections, scheduled for November.

While the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) have recently held intensive negotiations to form the government, observers doubt their success at this stage. They predict that the birth of the new cabinet in the Kurdistan Region will coincide with the announcement of the results of Iraq’s parliamentary elections. The reason, they argue, is that the two parties will seek to divide government positions in both Erbil and Baghdad based on their results in the regional and federal parliaments, within the framework of a clearer agreement.

Sources have revealed that Washington has for some time been exerting direct pressure on both sides to finalize the government formation process.

After last week’s announcement of an agreement to resume the export of Kurdish oil through Turkey’s international port, observers predicted that negotiations over forming the new government would become more active, leading to the announcement of the new cabinet. However, sources within both parties pointed out that in the near future, they will be preoccupied with the upcoming general elections in Iraq.

Kifah Mahmoud, media adviser to the president of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, rejected the idea that the delay in forming the government in Kurdistan should be considered a failure. He attributed the delay to many reasons, most of which he traced back to the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, while others are linked to the political situation in Iraq and the stances of certain actors whose policies are not in the interest of the Kurdistan Region.

Source: Asharq Al-Awsat Newspaper