LONDON – Massoud Barzani, the Kurdistan Region president, appeared to rebuff recent overtures from Iraqi prime minister Nouri Al-Maliki when he this week accused the Shiite politician of taking the country towards totalitarianism.
In remarks that might be read as a response to peace feelers from Mr. Maliki after months of deteriorating relations between Erbil and Baghdad, Barzani said: “The authorities in Baghdad want to control everything ... It is not acceptable to us. We want to be partners; we don't want to be subjects."
He was speaking in an interview with Reuters on Monday in which he also repeated a warning that Kurds could decide to opt for independence if their demands for a fair deal from the Baghdad government were not met.
The KRG president’s remarks came after Maliki reached out to Kurdish and other political leaders in the hope of garnering support for a third term as prime minister following national elections held on April 30.
A source in Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), the Kurdish party shown to have won the largest number of votes in the parliamentary elections according to early counts, this week said its leaders had received a letter signed by Maliki as the head of his State of Law coalition and outlining his plans.
Ali Shala, his fellow leader in the coalition, had earlier noted that Kurdish participation in the new Iraqi government would benefit all sides. Shala singled out President Barzani as an “experienced politician who takes into account the current domestic and international circumstances when making decisions.”
Barzani failed to return the compliment in a blistering attack on Maliki for overseeing a drift towards authoritarianism in his second four-year term.
"There was no partnership, and it was totalitarianism," said Barzani of governance in Iraq under Maliki.
"He is the number one responsible for it. He was capable of not allowing the whole process to go in that direction," the KRG leader told Reuters.
Final results of last month’s election have yet to be announced and Kurdish support could turn out to be vital for the prime minister’s hopes of securing a further term. Meanwhile, his rivals among Sunnis and even within his own Shiite community are relying on the Kurds to thwart his ambition to stay in power.
The atmosphere between Erbil and Baghdad has been soured by an unresolved dispute over Kurdish plans to export the region’s oil directly to Turkey. Kurdish leaders have also complained about Baghdad’s violent crackdown on ordinary Arab Sunnis that has led to an influx of refugees to the KRG from Anbar province.
Referring to the crackdown in Anbar, Barzani said: "To ignite a war in order to achieve political gains is a catastrophe." He added: “In any country, if they pursue that strategy, that means the end of that country."
Erbil has previously accused Maliki of failing to abide by the spirit of Iraq’s federal constitution. President Barzani signaled that one option open to the Kurds to respond was to withdraw all Kurdish participation in the Baghdad government.
"All options are on the table," he told Reuters. Declaring that the present situation in Iraq was unsustainable, he said: "It is time for final decisions. We are not going to wait another decade and go through the same experience again. If we boycott the process, we will boycott everything."
The Kurds helped Maliki secure a second term in 2010 after accepting his promises to share power and settle the status of the so-called disputed territories, which include Kirkuk. When he failed to deliver, Barzani joined an unsuccessful bid to unseat him in 2014.
Although his latest remarks did not represent an outright rejection of Maliki’s overtures, that past experience will have taught him that the Kurds need firmer guarantees if they agree to share power again.
Referring to the prospect of an eventual independence referendum in Kurdistan, Barzani said: "If they don't like us to be with them, they should tell us and we will take another path as well. We are going to have a referendum and ask our people. Whatever the people decide."
