KRG PM: Kurdistan will not give up ‘national demands’

[Anthea]

PUK picks 7 December
for its party congress

After months of internal wrangling, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) on Saturday announced that they will hold their long-delayed party congress on 7 December 2019

The decision was made "unanimously" by the PUK Leadership Council on Saturday afternoon, hours after a politburo meeting in the presence of acting leader Kosrat Rasul Ali, and second deputy secretary general and Iraqi President Barham Salih.

"We are announcing today that the [PUK] Leadership Council unanimously, in a friendly atmosphere, agreed for our party congress to be held on 7 December," PUK spokesman Latif Sheikh Omer revealed in a press conference on Saturday afternoon.

The leadership council will today recommend that the congress committee to "start their technical works and preparations for the congress date," Omer added.

The PUK has held only three congresses since its foundation in June 1975. The party has suffered many internal setbacks in recent years - notably the formation of the breakaway Change Movement (Gorran) in 2009 by late PUK co-founder Nawshirwan Mustafa.

On October 10, 2013, the PUK held a general assembly at their Qalachwalan retreat, lasting less than an hour. The mandate of the party leadership was extended and January 31, 2014, was proposed as the date for the fourth congress, which failed to materialize.

The death of party leader Jalal Talabani in 2017, Iraqi and Kurdistan Region parliament elections in May and September 2018 respectively, and long-time members leaving and rejoining the party have all contributed to the delay.

On 1 January 2018, the PUK leadership said it would hold its fourth congress on March 5, 2018, but party members were unable to reach a consensus on the date.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/070920192

[Anthea]

KRG prime minister says Kurdistan
will not give up ‘national demands’

The Kurdistan Region is not only concerned with the debate over the federal budget in its deliberations with Baghdad, and will not give up its “national demands,” the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) said in a release on Sunday

KRG Prime Minister Masrour Barzani made the comments in Erbil in a meeting with the heads of Kurdistan Region political parties and members of the finance committee in the Iraqi parliament.

“The Prime Minister asserted that the problem of the people of Kurdistan is not merely about the budget [share] and salaries, but that we have a national question and national demands, and we will not relinquish our constitutional rights and demands,” read the statement.

Barzani notified the heads of the Kurdish blocs of the progress of talks with the Iraqi government over the budget, disputed territories and other issues. The two disagree about oil sales and the KRG’s share of the federal budget, as well as the administration of the disputed Iraqi-Kurdish territories in the north of the country.

“We hope, on the bases of the constitution, the issue are resolved in a manner that the principles of true partnership, balance, and consensus are taken into consideration,” the statement quoted the Kurdish prime minister as saying.

The Kurdish blocs in the Iraqi parliament later met with Rewaz Faiaq, the Speaker of the Kurdistan Region’s parliament, on Sunday to discuss the Kurdistan Region’s budget share, among other matters.

One of the sticking matters between the Kurdistan Region and the government of Iraq is independent oil sales of the former. According to Iraq’s 2019 budget law, the KRG is to handover 250,000 barrels of oil to Iraq’s State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO).

The revenue would go to the federal treasury. The KRG, however, has yet to handover a single barrel, while Baghdad has been sending the salaries of more than 600,000 public employees of the KRG. According to the budget bill, an amount equivalent to the 250,000 barrels per day of oil not handed over would be cut off from the KRG’s share.

In case of a failure to resolve the oil issue, the KRG might have to endure another financial crisis, like in 2014, when it could no longer pay its bloated, more than one million individual-strong public sector employees.

Regarding the disputed territories, Iraq retook them from the KRG in 2017 following the Kurdistan independence referendum. Since then, there has been an Islamic State (ISIS) resurgence in the areas.

Currently, Baghdad and Erbil have two technical teams, one concerned with budget and oil matters, and the other concerned with the disputed territories and security cooperation, working on the outstanding issues between the two.

There is also a supreme committee, composed of the Iraqi and Kurdish prime ministers, to approve the agreements that the two committees reach.

A member of the Iraqi parliamentarian from the opposition Hikmah Front has said that Iraqi parliamentarians will soon reconsider agreements between the KRG and federal Iraqi government as KRG has shown “no good will” in keeping its side of the bargain with the Iraq.

Many Kurds consider Iraqi’s current prime minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi as friendly to Kurds, as he has previously admitted that the Kurdish issue in Iraq is as old as Iraq itself.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/080920191