ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—The leaders of the breakaway faction of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) party, Barham Salih and Kosrat Rasoul Ali, who formed a new decision-making body to oversee all decisions of the party, have rejected a request for a meeting from the majority PUK politburo faction, led by Herro Ibrahim Ahmed. Salih and Rasoul said they are not ready to meet and that negotiation was needed first.
Tensions between the factions have reached a point that communication is now done through the exchange of messages through a third person. Herro Ibrahim, via Diler Saeed Majeed, head of the PUK’s finance department, sent a message to the decision-making body, saying, “Let’s have a politburo and leadership council meeting.”
The decision making body rejected the request.
A member of the PUK politburo affiliated with the decision-making body told Rudaw, “There are issues we have made decisions on and we won’t compromise on them. The first step is to solve the PUK’s problems. That should be done outside of the politburo and leadership meetings.”
“The decision-making body has set up a delegation for negotiation, and they are ready anytime the other side is ready to meet,” a politburo member said.
“We would like to make it clear to Herro Ibrahim Ahmed, as we have already said in our message to her, that we do not want meetings but negotiations,” he added. “Because five committees including finance, media, organization, Peshmerga, and foreign relations were set up for solving the internal problems of the PUK but they had no result. Herro Ibrahim was not ready to solve the problems.”
Sheikh Jaafar Mustafa, a member of the politburo, explained to Rudaw why the newly formed decision-making body is needed. “There is no decision-making body in the PUK. Each one decides from their own post. A party like the PUK should have a decision-making body.”
Mustafa, who is head of the PUK’s Peshmerga unit 70 and is affiliated with the decision-making body, detailed their strategy to deal with the rift between the factions. “If we do not reach an agreement with the Herro Ibrahim faction to create the decision-making body for the PUK, then this announced faction will become the PUK’s official decision-making body.”
Within 24 hours of the announcement of the decision-making body, Iran sent a delegation to Sulaimani to mediate. But, as the decision-making faction said, “The Iranian returned empty handed.”
Rudaw learned from a high-level source within the PUK that when Iran realized the crisis could not be easily resolved, they tried a harder line, telling the decision-making body, “We will not allow the PUK to be divided.”
Iranian also requested the faction to keep calm, saying, “The tensions should not reach the point of clashes and armed conflict.”
One of the politburo members from the decision-making body who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Rudaw “Iran asked us to hold off on making the announcement for two days until they could solve the crisis but we did not follow their advice.”
Despite reports of Iran’s involvement in negotiations during this dispute, the Iranian consul general in Sulaimani on Sunday dismissed claims that his country had sent mediators to resolve the internal differences at the PUK.
Iran has previously played mediator between PUK factions; in 2013 the Tehran agreement was signed between PUK factions in the presence of a KDP representative. Both deputies of the PUK secretary general, Kosrat Rasoul and Barham Salih, signed the accord with Herro Ibrahim. According to the agreement, Kosrat Rasoul became chair of party affairs, Herro Ibrahim became chair of finance affairs, and Barham Salih was made chair of diplomatic relations.
The agreement, however, did not last long as Jamil Hawrami, member of the PUK’s leadership committee, confirmed. “This Tehran agreement was aborted early. Herro Ibrahim regretted it.”
In this dispute, the decision-making said that they have two options to negotiate with Herro Ibrahim’s faction, according to a PUK politburo member.
“The first door of dialogue will be with Herro Ibrahim,” a politburo member from decision making body said. “And they cannot say that they are the majority. This is not acceptable. They have appointed many people as officials in order to say they are the majority.”
He detailed the decision-making body’s position on several key issues that would be raised in negotiations. The issues include deciding on a stance with respect to independence of the Kurdistan Region, speaking in defense of the Kurdish government as the PUK is a part of it, and clarifying the party’s relations with Iran and Turkey.
When asked what the decision-making body’s next step would be if talks failed, the politburo member answered, “The most important thing for the decision-making body is to reach an agreement with Herro’s faction. But if not, then we have a road map to manage the PUK and we will announce it.”
Mohammed Hama Saeed, a member of PUK leadership committee who considers himself neutral, told Rudaw, “The efforts of Barham Salih and Kosrat Rasoul are very serious. If they do not listen to their demands then they will take another step.”
A source close to Herro Ibrahim’s faction told Rudaw that likely after Eid both factions will meet to discuss forming one authority within the party, oil revenues, the PUK’s relationships with Iran and Turkey, and the PUK’s relationships with the KDP and Gorran.
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