Dispute threatens split in Iraq’s Kurdish regional government

Al Jazeera reported that a political impasse between the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) is threatening to split the semiautonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq into two administrations.

The dispute escalated after a parliamentary session in Erbil was held without the participation of the PUK, leading the party's leader Bafel Talabani to withdraw from the government. This raises the possibility of a rival administration forming in the PUK's stronghold of Sulaimaniyah.

Independent Kurdish politician Yasin Aziz told Al Jazeera that the divisions between the two parties have deepened, making the prospect of two separate administrations increasingly likely. He noted that the activation of parliament without the PUK intensified the rift.

The KDP, led by Massoud Barzani, is the largest party in the region with strongholds in Erbil and Dohuk. Since the early 1990s, Iraq’s Kurds have largely governed themselves under a US-led no-fly zone, and the Iraqi Constitution recognizes the Kurdish region as a federal entity with legislative and executive powers.