By Sirwan Abbas
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – A new season of diplomatic meetings has started in the Kurdistan Region among the estranged coalition parties whose bitter political rivalries last year sent the parliament into a severe gridlock with ongoing ramifications as the country is struggling to recover from an economic turmoil.
A spokesperson for the dominant Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) told Rudaw the meetings will include, among others, the Change Movement (Gorran), a centre-leaning party with populist features who have over the past two years taken a robust position against what they describe as the "corrupt establishment" of the Kurdistan Region under the leadership of the KDP.
"The KDP will initiate the dialogue among parties to bridge the disagreements and will most likely meet with both Gorran and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK)," said Ahmed Kani, a KDP official.
Deadly riots erupted across Gorran-PUK dominated areas last year over delayed payments to government employees. Three KDP members were killed.
The KDP, which already had been at deepening odds with Gorran over a range of issues, retaliated, sacking Gorran's 5 members of the KDP-led cabinet and suspending the Parliament Speaker, Yousef Muhammd, a senior Gorran member.
The parliament has not been in session since then.
Kurdish President Masoud Barzani, who is also the leader for the KDP, issued a conciliatory statement last Monday in which he urged the conflicting parties, including the KDP, to enter talks and find a solution to the ongoing political dilemma in the Kurdistan Region as it gears up for a general election tentatively set for September next year.
The PUK and Gorran announced last week they welcome the initiative and are open for talks.
Barzani called on "the parties to start negotiations, reactivate the parliament, elect a new leadership for the parliament, come to an agreement for a new government and appoint an executor for the post of the presidency till next elections."
Barzani's term in office was prolonged for another two years in August last year by a judiciary council, a move that came after the Gorran-PUK dominated parliament refused to lengthen his mandate.
Barzani has indicated that he is willing to step down as the region's president earlier than next August, if the parties reach an agreement on a trustee.
"The country was at war with the ISIS militants and it would be irresponsible for me to leave my office while the war was still raging," Barzani told BBC Persian Service in his latest interview earlier this month.
"But I have said that from start that I would leave my position the moment someone is agreed upon to replace me," he added.
But there is no obvious successor.
The PUK has recently seen internal rifts as opposing factions have emerged, disagreeing on the direction the party is headed.
With the PUK's deepening internal rivalries and its fragile strategic pact with Gorran in turmoil, the new rounds of talks are deemed to have better chance of success than previous negotiations which all turned futile.
"We will have no problems welcoming the KDP delegation for talks... and will also coordinate with Gorran," said a member of the PUK leadership council Ata Sarawyi who indicated that his party would prefer meeting the KDP team jointly with Gorran.
It is unclear whether the PUK and Gorran will enter the 2017 parliament elections on a joint ticket as indicated in a pact made between them in May last year. But with both the disputed areas of Kirkuk and large parts of Kurdish areas in the Nineveh Plains now in Kurdish hands, much seems to be at stake, leaving it impossible for the parties to ignore a broad consensus which otherwise is likely to imperil the historic gains achieved in the ISIS battlegrounds.
