ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) are set to meet on Tuesday to resume talks over the formation of the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) new cabinet, officials from both parties said on Monday. Their agenda will also include talks over the latest developments in Syria.
“We will mainly talk about government formation.. But we also talk about the developments in Rojava [northeast Syria] and Syria, which have created a sensitive security situation. We as the Kurdistan Region have a nearly 100-kilometers border with it [Syria],” PUK spokesperson Saadi Pira, told Rudaw.
He added it is very important to discuss Syria because “we are close to the fire,” referring to the sensitive security situation in the neighbouring country.
The 13-year uprising against Bashar al-Assad’s regime came to a quick end when a coalition of rebels led by the Islamist Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) launched a lightning offensive against the Syrian army late last month, culminating their victory with the capture of Damascus as Assad fled to Russia and ending over five decades of Baathist rule.
Kurdistan Region held its long overdue parliamentary elections on October 20.
No single party won a majority in the parliament so a governing coalition will have to be formed, as has historically been the case. The KDP and PUK, while rivals, also share power in government.
Both parties held their first government formation talks late November. They “discussed the post-election phase of the sixth term of the Kurdistan Parliament and the possibilities and preparations for how to work in a way that is in the interests of the people of Kurdistan,” read a statement from the office of Qubad Talabani, a senior PUK member and deputy prime minister in the outgoing government, at the time.
Dilshad Shahab, a member of KDP’s negotiation team, told Rudaw that the party will soon release a statement regarding Tuesday’s meeting with PUK.
