ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani on Thursday said that he believes it is “weird” that the members of his cabinet from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) have boycotted the meetings of the Council of Ministers. The Kurdistan Region’s governing parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the PUK have been at loggerheads in recent months over the Region’s parliamentary elections, the transparency of the oil and local income of the provinces under their influence, and the assassination of a former PUK colonel in Erbil in October. The recent escalation in the tensions between both governing parties has led to PUK’s boycotting of government’s weekly meetings headed by PM Barzani. Qubad Talabani, deputy PM and a senior member of the PUK, has also stopped attending the meetings of the Council of Ministers. “It is weird that our friends from the PUK boycott the meetings of the Council of Ministers," PM Barzani told Rudaw’s Sangar Abdulrahman in Davos during an interview with several Kurdish media outlets. “We are absolutely against the idea of turning the Council of Ministers into a place for issues. All those who have taken part in this government should express their issues, criticism and opinions - if they have any - during meetings of the Council of Ministers,” he added. Barzani called on the members of his cabinet from the PUK to attend government meetings again. Despite working together in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), the two parties have established control over different parts of the Region, often being referred to as the “Yellow Zone” and “Green Zone.“ The KDP is dominant in Erbil and Duhok provinces, while the PUK rules Sulaimani and Halabja.
Kurdistan17-06-2026President Barzani, Baghdad governor discuss closer cooperation between Erbil, Baghdad cities
