ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The autonomous Kurdistan Region must insist on a charter for the Iraqi council of ministers, limiting the powers of the prime minister, before starting talks on possible participation in a new government in Baghdad, according to a group of Kurdish parliamentarians.
“This is so that no one else in the future can make all decisions by himself in the council of ministers,” Muayad Tayib, former spokesman of the Kurdistani bloc in the Iraqi parliament, told Rudaw. “The cabinet must have a clear charter,” he said.
“Up to this moment the council of ministers is working without a charter,” said Tayib. “But if a charter spells out clearly that the prime minister can only decide after the consent of two thirds of the ministers, making decisions wouldn’t be so easy.”
Tayib’s comments come as the different political groups in Iraq prepare to hunker down for drawn out negotiations to form the next Iraqi government, following the April 30 parliamentary elections.
Like most Kurdish leaders, Tayib is concerned that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has assumed greater authority than he was entitled to, such as control of the armed forces, the ministry of interior and national security.
“If the cabinet had had a clear charter, Maliki wouldn’t have been able to make decisions all by himself,” said Tayib.
Maliki, a Shiite, was able to become prime minister for a second term in 2010 with the help of the Kurds, who lent him their support after they signed a 19-point deal with him known as the Erbil Agreement.
However, in the past four years Erbil has accused Maliki of betraying the agreement, which called for steps to resolve mutual claims to disputed territories and passing an oil and gas law. Most recently, Maliki’s government took the step of freezing Kurdistan’s budget, using that as a tool to pressure Erbil over an oil row.
Maliki’s State of Law coalition won last month’s elections with 92 seats, but still needs the alliance of other groups to form a government. Tayib advised the Kurds to be more careful this time, and reign in any new prime minister’s powers through a charter.
“The drafting of a charter was mentioned in the Erbil Agreement, but it didn’t happen,” Tayib said.
Kurdish leaders agreed two weeks ago to establish a committee for talks with Iraq’s Shiite and Sunni parties about possible Kurdish participation in Baghdad.
The Kurds were alarmed last year when Maliki formed a new military command named the Dijla Force, for dispatch to the mainly Kurdish populated areas of Diyala and Kirkuk. Erbil countered by sending in its own Peshmarga forces.
Similarly, Iraq’s large minority Sunnis accuse the premier of imposing collective punishment against their cities -- mainly Fallujah, Ramadi and Mosul -- by sending in troops in the name of fighting al-Qaeda and other extremist groups.
