Largest Iraqi parliamentary bloc delegation arrives in Erbil, looks to form government with Kurds

by **GirlBye** Mon Aug 27, 2018 10:56 am

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The largest Iraqi parliamentary bloc arrived in Erbil on Monday to discuss the formation of a new Iraqi government with the help of Kurdish parties following the May 12 national election.

The delegation is comprised of election winner Sairoon, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s Nasr (Victory) Coalition, al-Hikma, and al-Wataniya.
The bloc, which altogether takes up 136 seats out of a total 329 in the Iraqi parliament, aims to convince the Kurdish parties, namely the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) with 25 seats, and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) with 18 seats, to join their bloc and form the new Iraqi government.

Among those in the Iraqi delegation are Nassar al-Rubaie and Jassim al-Halfi from the Sairoon coalition, Adnan al-Zurufi, and Khalid al-Obeidi from the Nasr alliance, Ahmed al-Fatlawi and Abdullah al-Zaidi from the Hikma Movement, Kazim al-Shamari and Raad al-Dahlaki from Wataniya.

The leading Kurdish parties, the KDP and the PUK, have agreed to jointly negotiate with Iraqi parties in Baghdad regarding the formation of the new government.

Currently, the Shia parties that account for the majority of seats in the Iraqi parliament are facing internal divisions, especially when it comes to choosing the country’s new Prime Minister.
They are mainly divided into two blocs, with the Sairoon, Nasr, Hikma, and Wataniya coalitions on one side, and State of Law (25 seats) led by the former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and al-Fatih (second-place winner with 48 seats) led by the commander of the Iranian-backed Shia Hashd al-Shaabi militias, Hadi al-Amiri, on the other.

The second group one is known for having very close ties with neighboring Iran. “The Kurds are closer to none of the two Iraqi blocs. We are still negotiating with both of them over the formation of a new Iraqi government,” Khalid Shwani, a member of the PUK Leadership Council, told Kurdistan 24 on Sunday.
“We [PUK and KDP] should join whichever bloc guarantees more rights to the people of the Kurdistan Region,” Shwani added.

http://www.kurdistan24.net/en/news/e7724be2-3cd6-4ee2-a5f7-77e50f9fe37d