Leading Iraqi Kurdish parties sign broad agreement

By Ali Mohamed

ERBIL, Iraq

The two main political parties in northern Iraq’s Kurdish region on Monday signed a “comprehensive agreement” on provincial administration.

The deal, details of which remain vague, was signed in Erbil by Nechirvan Barzani of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and Kosrat Rasul Ali of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).

At a joint press conference held after the signing, PUK spokesman Latif Sheikh Omar said: “We have signed a comprehensive agreement and are now in the process of forming a committee to follow up on its implementation.”

KDP spokesman Mahmoud Mohamed, for his part, said the purpose of Monday’s agreement was to “get the Kurdish house in order and respond to the will of the region’s people”.

“This agreement will facilitate formation of the region’s next government, along with several parliamentary committees,” Mohamed said without elaborating further on the agreement’s contents.

Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region has struggled to form a new government since polls were held last September in which the KDP won 45 seats in the 111-member Kurdish Assembly and the PUK won 21 seats.