Saturday, September 18th 2010Kurdish delegation arrives in Baghdad to continue talks with Iraqi blocs
Baghdad, An MP from the Kurdistan Blocs Coalition (KBC) said on Saturday, that a negotiating team will arrive in Baghdad today to resume talks with the winning blocs in the parliamentary elections to determine their positions to the KBC’s terms of negotiation submitted last month.
Mahmoud Othman told reporters that the team would travel to Baghdad following a meeting with the President of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), Massoud Barzani.
"When the Kurdish delegation reaches Baghdad, it will ask the winning political blocs to determine their positions to the negotiating paper” Othman said.
In August, the KBC went to Baghdad with their terms of negotiation after declaring their willingness to join forces with any bloc which would uphold the federal constitution and was ready to meet their demands.
Among other issues, the KBC’s 19-paragraph negotiating paper requests the implementation of Constitutional article 140 – which deals with the demographic restoration and census taking process in territories under dispute between the KRG and Baghdad.
Other matters of concern in the paper are disputes with Baghdad over oil deals signed by the KRG with foreign companies and the centrally allocated budget for the Region’s “Peshmarga” security forces.
The paper also reiterates the KBC’s insistence on outgoing President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, retaining office for another four-year term.
Although six months have passed since the announcement of the electoral results, the winning blocs in Baghdad have not reached any agreement over which of them has the right to form the new government and which candidate will take the prime minister’s post.
The Iraqi political arena has been the scene of much maneuvering as the various lists have been locked in talks to create an alliance that assures the necessary 163-seat majority in the 325-seat parliament.
Many observers believe that the Kurdish bloc’s 57 seats may be decisive in these ongoing negotiations.
Reported by Haider Ibrahim
Rn/Ka/AKnews
