Shkoi Kurdistan-
After some months of dispute and rising tensions between the Region’s two ruling parties in recent months, KDP and PUK met on Tuesday and reaffirmed their commitments to a 2019 agreement on governance and agreed to desecallate tensions between them after months of rising friction.
“Both sides agreed on implementing the content of the PUK-KDP political agreement which was signed on March 4, 2019 to support the government organs prevail over the existing health situation brought about by the coronavirus pandemic,” according to a readout of the meeting published on party-affiliated media.
The two sides also agreed to “support the government for governance across the Kurdistan Region based on the implementation of the agreement.”
The KDP and PUK signed a four-year 18-point landmark political agreement on March 4, 2019 for the joint governing of the Region, and the strengthening of Kurdish political unity.
Both parties, along with their affiliated security forces dominate their own respective spheres of geographical and economic influence inside the Kurdistan Region – a remnant of the brutal civil war of the 1990s. They have since worked together to govern the autonomous Region.
A string of recent events have contributed to rising tensions between the Region’s two ruling parties in recent months. A two month-long standoff in Erbil province’s Zini Warte, between rival Peshmerga units affiliated with the KDP and the PUK, soured relations between the two. Tensions further escalated following the stripping of immunity from Soran Omar, an outspoken MP from the Kurdistan Islamic Group (Komal). Orchestrated by the KDP, the move was roundly condemned by other factions, including the PUK, as an attack on parliament’s democratic functions.
Party reconciliation talks were cancelled several times due to the implementation of measures to control the spread of COVID-19 since March, including multiple lockdowns.
A war of words between officials and supporters of the two parties that took place on social media platforms aligned with both parties further deteriorated relations.
