Kurdistan president Massoud Barzani (L) with Iraqi president Jalal Talabani (C) and outgoing Iraqi prime minister Nouri Al-Maliki during the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) 3rd General Conference. Sulaimaniyah, Kurdistan region, June 1, 2010.June 1, 2010
Kurdistan president urges recourse to constitution, supports Talabani as Iraqi president
SULAIMANIYAH, Kurdistan region 'Iraq', — Iraqi Kurdistan Region President Massoud Barzani urged political blocs on Tuesday to have recourse to the nation’s permanent constitution in the formation of a new government, affirming that Jalal Talabani is the Kurds’ candidate for a second presidential term in office.
“The country has witnessed some problems after the recent legislative elections regarding the formation of a cabinet and its line-up. We are very interested that a prime minister would be selected but above all there has to be recourse to the constitution and we are for the formation of a national partnership government,” Barzani said during the 3rd Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) General Conference which was kicked off Tuesday in the city of Sulaimaniyah.
“The Kurds are not going to be part of the problems over the formation of a government. We are trying to bring the blocs’ views closer in light of our clear position against any attempts to marginalize any of Iraq’s groups,” the Kurdish leader added.
Earlier on Tuesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki arrived in the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah to attend ceremonies of the PUK congress inaugural session.
Maliki had arrived in Erbil, the capital of the semi-autonomous Iraq Kurdistan region, on Monday and met with the region’s president Barzani.
The PUK will convene a congress in Sulaimaniyah, where its leader, Jalal Talabani, the Iraqi president, will run again for the party chairmanship.
The PUK, established in 1967, had convened two congresses, the first in 1992 after the uprising in Iraqi Kurdistan, and the second in 2001.
Barzani praised the “role played by Talabani in brining closer the views of all political groups and spare the country further problems.”
He asserted that “Talabani would be the Kurds’ candidate for a second presidential term in office in Iraq,” stressing the need for “peaceful coexistence and unity to fulfill the people’s aspirations.”
Iraq president's bloc opens crucial party congress
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan opened its party congress Tuesday, just the third such meeting since its founding in 1975, amid charges of nepotism and graft.
Demands for reform of the PUK are likely to dominate the meeting, due to last several days, as it faces an upstart opposition movement and a loss of ground to the Kurdistan region's other leading bloc, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) of regional president Massud Barzani.
"Today was a good start, and I expect that it will be a successful conference," said Fareed Asasart, a senior PUK official.
"There will be more opportunities for young members to take part in the leadership of the PUK, and there is a quota for women as well."
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, Vice President Adel Abdel Mahdi and Ammar al-Hakim, the head of a major Shiite political party, all attended the first day of the congress, which comes as parliamentary factions hold coalition talks nearly three months after a general election.
The PUK fielded candidates in alliance with the KDP and between them they won 59 seats, making them the fourth largest bloc in the Iraqi parliament.
The congress is only the third held by the PUK since its inception -- the previous two were immediately after its founding and then following the US-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Disenchantment in PUK ranks prompted a group of defectors to form a new party called Goran (Change in Kurdish) last year.
The breakaway group has already made a significant dent in the PUK's traditional power base in Iraqi Kurdistan's second city of Sulaimaniyah.
That has eroded the position of the PUK vis-a-vis the KDP, headed by Talabani's adversary-turned-ally Barzani, and the PUK is now clearly the junior partner in the Kurdish alliance.
http://ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2010/6/state3907.htm
