I knew the KDP and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) were both intent on taking the Iraqi presidency and therefore I wondered how these two may ever come to an agreement.
Two days later and in conversation with a KDP official, I said that their candidate stood no chance of being elected through parliament thanks to the PUK’s close ties with Iraq’s Shiite groups and Iran.
For his part, Barham Salih longed for the position and he was prepared to do anything for it, including abolishing his own party.
In Baghdad Bafel Talabani was heading the PUK delegation, Nechirvan Barzani the KDP’s, and Qasim Soleimani Iran’s. The trio held a meeting of which and the US special presidential envoy to defeat ISIS, Brett McGurk, was aware.
Talabani was concerned that his brother Qubad may lose his status in the Kurdish government due to the unimpressive number of votes the PUK had won; therefore, he said his party was willing to give up on Salih and withdraw his candidacy in favor of the KDP’s Hussein.
In return the PUK and KDP would get to run the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) on a two-year rotating basis.
KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani had agreed to the proposal. For her part, Bafel Talabani’s mother Hero Ibrahim Ahmed, a pivotal figure in the PUK, had spoken with KDP head Masoud Barzani and the Kurdish prime minister and made it clear to them that she opposed Salih’s candidacy.
Things seemed to be settled, and Talabani had even personally congratulated Hussein, only asking that he appoint Adil Abdul-Mahdi to form the new government.
Hussein was therefore primed to enter parliament to be made president. But at the very same time, and despite the agreement, the PUK was busy persuading Shiite and Sunni Arab parties to vote for Salih.
The PUK delegation, including Salih himself, had told Shiite and Sunni leaders that a KDP man as president would threaten the integrity of Iraq. In his first appearance as Iraq’s president at the UN General Assembly, Hussein would push for the independence of the Kurdistan Region, they warned.
“We suspect you will call for separation when you go to the UN,” Shiite leaders Nouri al-Maliki and Falih Fayaz had told Hussein the day before the vote was held on the Iraqi presidency.
Maliki had even asked Hussein for written guarantees that he would not seek Kurdish independence as president.
As Hussein was heading to parliament to receive the blessing of its members, acting PUK leader Kosrat Rasul asked PM Barzani whether they could split the Iraqi presidency into two terms – one term for each party. Barzani dismissed the idea, arguing it was not in line with the Iraqi constitution.
In that case Salih remained the PUK’s candidate for the presidency, Rasul told Barzani.
By the time Hussein arrived in parliament, Salih was already there lobbying for himself with Iraqi MPs. The PUK was telling the Shiite members of parliament that Hussein was a separatist who could break up Iraq.
The KDP candidate is Shiite, the PUK said, so how could both president and prime minister be Shiites, they asked.
Before the vote on the new president, the US had reportedly written off Salih as someone who had allegiances with Iran. On why the PUK still picked Salih in the end, Bafel is said to have told McGurk on the phone that it was beyond his powers and a decision had been made by the PUK politburo.
What really happened was that Iran’s National Security Council had already decided that Salih was Iraq’s next president.
This position itself and the way Salih was carried to the throne may bring the PUK many headaches. Salih knows his powers in Baghdad are limited. He may try to use his new post to strengthen his position within the PUK, but Qubad Talabani, Hero Ibrahim Ahmed, Shanaz Ibrahim Ahmed, and Mala Bakhtiar will oppose his bid to rise through the ranks of the PUK.
Hevidar Ahmed is a new member of the Kurdistan Region parliament and a former Rudaw journalist.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rudaw.
