Erbil
- More than 10 months after the Iraqi legislative elections were held on October 10, the political forces have not succeeded in forming a government and a president and naming a president for the republic.
Despite dozens of political initiatives, alliances and attempts, the political stalemate still lingers amid a remarkable escalation by supporters of the Sadrist movement, which topped the electoral scene with 73 parliamentary seats out of the 329 parliamentary seats, and its demand for new elections two months after the resignation of its deputies from Parliament.
Al-Jazeera Net conducted an exclusive interview with Jaafar Ibrahim Aminki, a member of the Political Bureau of the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the head of the advisory board in the Presidency of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, during which he spoke about the overall political situation in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region.
What is the position of the Kurdistan Democratic Party on the current political crisis, and where does it stand in the Shiite-Shiite differences?
The party is making great efforts to resolve the Iraqi situation, as the party is one of the founders of the new Iraq after 2003, and it was still seeking political stability and participated in all parliamentary sessions to ensure that the institutions are elected by the Iraqi people, and the Democratic Party is the first political party officially registered in Iraq in 1960, and accordingly the party is proceeding on the civil democratic path to ensure stability.
As for the current successive and worsening crises between the Shiite component, we in the party regret that, and consider that Shiite differences are a matter of the Shiite house, but there is certainly another aspect related to public life and democratic and political life together, and in this aspect there has been a continuous pursuit of meaningful political dialogue And President Masoud Barzani had put forward an initiative for openness between the Sadrist movement and the coordination framework (the poles of the dispute), and there was another initiative by the President of the Region, Nechirvan Barzani, but after all these attempts, we did not reach tangible solutions.
Two weeks ago, there was a visit by the head of the Al-Fateh Alliance Hadi Al-Amiri to Erbil. Did it lead to anything?
Al-Amiri’s visit was appreciated and welcomed, and we consider it necessary to bring the parties together, as the goal of the visit was for President Massoud Barzani to play a role in resolving the ongoing political closure, agreeing on future steps, and working to strengthen Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi’s initiative to gather all Iraqi parties around a political table and ensure Everyone attended, but the dialogue did not bear fruit because of the Sadrist movement's boycott of it.
You were in the party within the tripartite alliance that includes the Sadrist bloc and the Alliance of Sovereignty, and after the Sadrist movement's representatives resigned and the protests and sit-ins began inside the Green Zone, do you have contact with the movement?
The Kurdistan Democratic Party is open to everyone, and the tripartite alliance that included the Sadrist movement, the Sovereignty Alliance, and the Kurdistan Democratic Party was a democratic alliance of the winners of the elections and was not a political axis to isolate itself from the rest of the political blocs.
At the same time, I was part of the party’s negotiating delegation and we had visits to the Sadrist movement and the rest of the blocs in Baghdad, including the framework. For us, the Iraqi consociational democracy necessitates naming ministers by the Shiite component, and I do not consider this case heresy as it is followed in consensual democracies.
We used to go and meet with the leader of the State of Law coalition, Nuri al-Maliki, at the same time that we had meetings with the Sadrist movement, where we demanded from the beginning that the Kurds focus on the Kurdish component and inter-communications and that the Shiite blocs work on the Shiite component and inter-agreements as well as with the Sunni blocs, and there was There was convergence in these views, but with the continuation of the crisis, the differences sharply increased and became more and more profound.
For us, the tripartite alliance aimed to form a strong federal government that represents all the sons of the Shiite component, and now we have contact with all the blocs and with the parties to the coordination framework and the Sadrist movement, but unfortunately we do not see that there is a solution on the horizon, as without a real political dialogue the situation will not stabilize politics in the country.
Since the start of the Sadrist movement's sit-ins in the Green Zone in Baghdad, many demands have been put forward, including holding early legislative elections. How do you view these demands and what is your position on them?
We in the Kurdistan Democratic Party do not look negatively at the demonstrations led by the Sadrist movement, as they are a constitutional right, especially since they have maintained peacefulness.
We have no objection in the party to the demands of the movement in terms of substance and form, and no political bloc that believes in democracy can refuse to return to square one and hold early legislative elections, especially with the chronic political impasse and the tragic reality that Iraq is witnessing now, and therefore this situation cannot continue.
I think that when we reach a comprehensive closure, there is no objection to taking two steps back in order to resolve the crisis and proceed with the democratic path. However, I confirm that we in the Kurdistan Democratic Party have not issued any official position on whether or not early elections are held, and we are still monitoring the political situation and seeking dialogue We hope that the parties will review their political positions in order to return to the negotiating table.
How is your relationship with the coordination framework, especially since the Kurdistan region has been repeatedly targeted with missiles and drones by armed groups loyal to the framework or to Iran?
There is a very great sensitivity in this issue, and we in the region consider the security of the region a red line, and we have talked with all parties and seek to resolve all differences with neighboring Iran through understanding and dialogue.
What happened in the recent period of targeting the Kurdistan region is dangerous, especially that the Iranian bombing of Erbil is a violation of Iraqi sovereignty and that a delegation from Iran visited Erbil, and the region provided adequate answers to the Iranians, and we were able to overcome this crisis.
As for the relationship with the coordination framework, we have maintained good relations with them, although the relationship was marred by doubts and weakness in the past period, based on the principle of participation in the homeland and crisis management, and our criticisms were limited to specific groups within the coordination framework.
In our dialogue with the framework, we demanded that the armed groups be subject to the Iraqi state or be removed from the umbrella of the coordination framework, as the threat of arms against any state, governorate or political party means choosing chaos.
There are many analyzes that think that the Democratic Party is concerned about the political process in Iraq and the return of political power to a certain party at the expense of the rest of the parties and components?
We had frank dialogues with the political parties in Baghdad. We do not move according to apprehension and fear, but rather according to our convictions and analyzes. Some of the opposite parties have explicitly accused the Triple Alliance of moving according to a regional and international conspiracy, and it turned out that they were delusions experienced by some parties based on the possibility of their losing power. Security and legal pursuits.
We tried to explain to the opposite parties that Iraq needs to speed up the formation of a strong federal government, and for our part in the Democratic Party, we were honest in dealing and frankness in the coordination framework about the failures in previous governments, especially in the government of former Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi, in which the Democratic Party participated, as the It was the framework that formed the government and with our blessing, as we achieved nothing but disappointment from that cabinet, and the agreement with them remained ink on paper, and the terms of the agreement with the rest of the blocs were not implemented, which is what called us to establish the tripartite alliance with the aim of forming a strong federal government.
You have internal problems with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the latest of which is about the presidency of the republic, which was part of the problem of forming the government. Where did your negotiations reach and is there hope for an end to the dispute?
Consultations on this point of contention with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan are still ongoing, and this is another problem caused by the fact that the Democratic Party has an electoral entitlement based on the results of the elections in which it outperformed the PUK.
The differences are still continuing, and we hope to reach a consensual solution to this dispute. I think that if the Shiite political blocs reach the nomination of a prime minister, I imagine that it will be easy for the Kurdish component to reach a comprehensive solution between the two Kurdish parties, including the problem of naming the President of the Republic.
There are many differences between Baghdad and Erbil regarding controversial constitutional articles?
Do you have a red line on any political figure assuming the position of prime minister in the future?
As for the Prime Minister, we do not have a red line on any figure, and we believe that the brothers in the Shiite blocs have a long political experience and were keen to deal with the Kurdistan region, except for the period before and following the experience of the referendum on the secession of the Kurdistan region in 2017.
We had a good understanding with the rest of the political blocs, and there were good steps on the constitutional articles to overcome the problems of the disputed areas and conduct a population census and referendum in these areas. As for the oil and gas law, we had understandings to freeze the 2007 draft law for a certain period until a law is reached It everyone.
All these issues were proceeding by consensus and understanding. We are now looking for the new prime minister to be agreed upon in the Shiite house, as the Shiite parties were consulting the Kurdish parties in naming the prime minister and it was a good experience for us and we hope it will continue.
There were decisions of the Federal Court that hindered the formation of the Iraqi government, and the judiciary also had a position against the leadership of your party, Hoshyar Zebari, assuming the presidency of the republic. What is your comment and how do you see the role of the judiciary in the current political crisis?
For us, we say it frankly, we were subjected to great injustice by the judiciary, especially with the decision of the Federal Court to exclude Hoshyar Zebari from running for the presidency of the Republic. .
I remember that the head of the Supreme Judicial Council, Faiq Zaidan, once criticized many of the decisions of the Federal Court in the recent period, especially that the blocking third’s decision was not successful at all, and it was possible to return to the judicial rulings and resort to the previous papers that were written during the preparation of the constitution and see the intention of the legislator In the event of constitutional disputes.
During the past two years, your relationship with Al-Kazemi was good, how would you describe his tenure as prime minister and did he succeed in his duties in your opinion?
I think that Al-Kazemi was relatively successful in running the government, as he took office at a critical period and was subjected to a dangerous assassination attempt, and the political blocs did not help him in strengthening the Iraqi situation and managing the country, as he was suffering from the absence of a parliamentary political bloc that supports and defends him.
For us in the Kurdistan Democratic Party, we supported Al-Kazemi and we are still without hesitation, and regardless of the extent of his cooperation with the region in the way we wished, we can say that Al-Kazemi was honest with himself and with everyone, and that if the political blocs provided him with sufficient support, he would have been able to move Iraq to stages. More advanced, but unfortunately the situation in Iraq is much worse now.
The Kurds are always described as the weight-bearing egg in the formation of all Iraqi governments after 2003, how do you comment?
We used to play an active role in bringing points of view closer, but in the consensual democratic experience in Iraq, no party has a "fatal egg" in political issues, and this concept is usually found in established democracies.
In the general sense in Iraq, every political party, whether Shiite, Sunni or Kurdish, has what can be described as a (semi-veto) in making decisions, and by virtue of the experience of Mr. Massoud Barzani and his relationship with the parties of the former Iraqi opposition, Barzani and the late President Jalal Talabani were playing a pivotal role Reconciling viewpoints and resolving differences.
If the political closure between the Sadrist movement and the coordination framework continues, where will Iraq go?
I think that the continuation of the crisis will lead to a clash, as the situation cannot be controlled in the capital, Baghdad, and there are two proposals. Either clash or go to early legislative elections, which may require 10 months to be prepared by the commission, and this period of time may contribute to calming the situation between the political blocs, except The early elections, if it is agreed to hold them, also require political consensus between the same conflicting blocs, and how to manage the elections.
I think that the situation is very tense, and I am afraid that if the current situation continues, it may lead to a clash, especially in the capital, Baghdad, which has a population of more than 10 million people.
With regard to the PKK, the KDP is always described as pragmatic and good at dealing with various parties. What is your position on the PKK and its targeting of Turkey from the region?
Our position is still the same that the PKK's political work should be based on Turkey, and that the PKK's military action is outdated and does not serve the Kurdish cause in Turkey. We believe that there is a Kurdish cause in Turkey despite the Turks' rejection of this conviction.
And the PKK by its actions does not help the Kurdish cause in Turkey, but it constantly works to provoke the Turkish government through guerrilla warfare, which will not lead to any positive result for the Kurds of Turkey.
For us, we reject the intervention of the PKK in the internal affairs of the Kurdistan region of Iraq, as their interference has been going on since the first elections in the region in 1992 and it is still operating outside the law, and this intervention led to several military clashes with the Peshmerga forces of the Kurdistan region.