Kurdistan Democratic Party Says No Longer Boycotting Iraqi Kurdistan Elections

Iraqi Kurdistan Region President Nechervan Barzani (R), Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani (C) and Kurdistan Democratic Party leader Masoud Barzani. (AFP file photo)
Iraqi Kurdistan Region President Nechervan Barzani (R), Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani (C) and Kurdistan Democratic Party leader Masoud Barzani. (AFP file photo)
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Kurdistan Democratic Party Says No Longer Boycotting Iraqi Kurdistan Elections

Iraqi Kurdistan Region President Nechervan Barzani (R), Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani (C) and Kurdistan Democratic Party leader Masoud Barzani. (AFP file photo)
Iraqi Kurdistan Region President Nechervan Barzani (R), Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani (C) and Kurdistan Democratic Party leader Masoud Barzani. (AFP file photo)

The Kurdistan Democratic Party, headed by Masoud Barzani, announced that it was no longer going to boycott the Iraqi Kurdistan Region parliamentary elections.

The boycott was prompted by objections to the mechanisms related to how to hold the elections.

A KDP official said the party would be taking part in the polls given the changes that have been introduced to the mechanism.

The elections were set for June 10.

The KDP announced the boycott in protest against the Federal Supreme Court of Iraq’s ruling related to the elections, such as eliminating the quota allotted to minorities in the Kurdistan parliament.

The court has since gone back on the ruling.

KDP MP Ekhlas al-Dulaimy told Asharq Al-Awsat that the boycott was sparked by the court rulings and now that some changes have been made, the party will participate in the elections.

She revealed that Kurdistan Region President Nechervan Barzani will issue within two days a decree to set a new date for the elections.

She stressed that the KDP was never against holding the elections or their timing. It had twice called for holding them, however, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan had demanded that they be postponed.

Nechervan Barzani had visited Baghdad following what was described as a successful visit to Iran last month.

In Baghdad, he attended meetings for the State Administration Coalition that backs the government of Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani.

Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani visited Baghdad last week where he met the majority of political and partisan leaderships. He also held talks with Iraqi President Abdul Latif al-Rashid, Sudani and acting parliament Speaker Mohsen al-Mandalawi.



Lebanon’s Jumblatt Visits Syria, Hoping for a Post-Assad Reset in Troubled Relations

Walid Jumblatt (C), the Druze former leader of Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), and his son and current party head Taymur Jumblatt (C-L) meet with Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) and interim prime minister Mohammad al-Bashir (L) during a visit to Damascus on December 22, 2024. (AFP)
Walid Jumblatt (C), the Druze former leader of Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), and his son and current party head Taymur Jumblatt (C-L) meet with Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) and interim prime minister Mohammad al-Bashir (L) during a visit to Damascus on December 22, 2024. (AFP)
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Lebanon’s Jumblatt Visits Syria, Hoping for a Post-Assad Reset in Troubled Relations

Walid Jumblatt (C), the Druze former leader of Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), and his son and current party head Taymur Jumblatt (C-L) meet with Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) and interim prime minister Mohammad al-Bashir (L) during a visit to Damascus on December 22, 2024. (AFP)
Walid Jumblatt (C), the Druze former leader of Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), and his son and current party head Taymur Jumblatt (C-L) meet with Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) and interim prime minister Mohammad al-Bashir (L) during a visit to Damascus on December 22, 2024. (AFP)

Former head of Lebanon’s Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), Druze leader Walid Jumblatt held talks on Sunday with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, whose group led the overthrow of Syria's President Bashar Assad, with both expressing hope for a new era in relations between their countries.

Jumblatt was a longtime critic of Syria's involvement in Lebanon and blamed Assad's father, former President Hafez Assad, for the assassination of his own father decades ago. He is the most prominent Lebanese politician to visit Syria since the Assad family's 54-year rule came to an end.

“We salute the Syrian people for their great victories and we salute you for your battle that you waged to get rid of oppression and tyranny that lasted over 50 years,” said Jumblatt.

He expressed hope that Lebanese-Syrian relations “will return to normal.”

Jumblatt's father, Kamal, was killed in 1977 in an ambush near a Syrian roadblock during Syria's military intervention in Lebanon's civil war. The younger Jumblatt was a critic of the Assads, though he briefly allied with them at one point to gain influence in Lebanon's ever-shifting political alignments.

“Syria was a source of concern and disturbance, and its interference in Lebanese affairs was negative,” al-Sharaa said, referring to the Assad government. “Syria will no longer be a case of negative interference in Lebanon," he said, pledging that it would respect Lebanese sovereignty.

Al-Sharaa also repeated longstanding allegations that Assad's government was behind the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, which was followed by other killings of prominent Lebanese critics of Assad.

Last year, the United Nations closed an international tribunal investigating the assassination after it convicted three members of Lebanon's Hezbollah — an ally of Assad — in absentia. Hezbollah denied involvement in the massive Feb. 14, 2005 bombing, which killed Hariri and 21 others.

“We hope that all those who committed crimes against the Lebanese will be held accountable, and that fair trials will be held for those who committed crimes against the Syrian people,” Jumblatt said.