Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, Where to?

 Iraq's Kurdistan region's President Massoud Barzani speaks during an interview with Reuters in Irbil, Iraq, July 6, 2017.
Iraq's Kurdistan region's President Massoud Barzani speaks during an interview with Reuters in Irbil, Iraq, July 6, 2017.
TT
20

Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, Where to?

 Iraq's Kurdistan region's President Massoud Barzani speaks during an interview with Reuters in Irbil, Iraq, July 6, 2017.
Iraq's Kurdistan region's President Massoud Barzani speaks during an interview with Reuters in Irbil, Iraq, July 6, 2017.

When the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) was established by the deceased political Jalal Talabani in June 1975, the political scene in Iraqi Kurdistan was free of any Kurdish political organization due to the collapse of the Kurdish revolution, which was led by Kurdistan Democratic Party under the leadership of deceased Mulla Mustafa Barzani.

Months after its establishment, PUK announced the Kurdish revolution against the Iraqi ruling regime as if it wanted to present itself as a substitute for the Kurdistan Democratic Party on the political scene. Throughout a decade and a half, PUK underwent a bitter military battle in the mountains of Kurdistan not only against the ruling regime in Baghdad but only against the majority of leftist Kurdish political organizations and blocs.

It seems that Talabani political cunning and vision have changed the political equations and brought down the balances of power in the Kurdish interior.

PUK attracted Kurdish leftist forces in which the approaches, belongings and political visions met. The internal condition in the union remained this way until 2008 when the second man and one of its founders Nawshirwan Mustafa decided to secede from it and form the Movement for Change. Subsequently, internal problems and political conflicts aggravated.

The scene was repeated with the second man Barham Salih dissociation.

Despite all this, Saadi Ahmad Pira, spokesperson for the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), stated to Asharq Al-Awsat that the union is still strong and united because it is a mass party that has been struggling since around five decades and has deep roots in the Kurdish community not to mention the wide mass foundation that wouldn’t abandon it no matter what.

Pira added that there is an anonymity on the conference to be held this year since the committees entrusted with organizing the conference are done with most of the required arrangements.

Council member Asos Ali declared to Asharq Al-Awsat that the party will move towards more solidarity after the conference, and will rearrange its papers in preparation for its future tasks.

“The new leadership to be concluded from the conference will be capable of putting an end to internal conflicts and moving the party into a new stage,” he added.



Ten Wounded, Including a Child, in Israeli Strikes on South Lebanon

FILED - 19 October 2024, Lebanon, Zawtar: Thick Smoke billows from the southern Lebanese village of Zawtar, where Israeli forces attacked alleged pro-Iranian Hezbollah positions.Photo: STR/dpa
FILED - 19 October 2024, Lebanon, Zawtar: Thick Smoke billows from the southern Lebanese village of Zawtar, where Israeli forces attacked alleged pro-Iranian Hezbollah positions.Photo: STR/dpa
TT
20

Ten Wounded, Including a Child, in Israeli Strikes on South Lebanon

FILED - 19 October 2024, Lebanon, Zawtar: Thick Smoke billows from the southern Lebanese village of Zawtar, where Israeli forces attacked alleged pro-Iranian Hezbollah positions.Photo: STR/dpa
FILED - 19 October 2024, Lebanon, Zawtar: Thick Smoke billows from the southern Lebanese village of Zawtar, where Israeli forces attacked alleged pro-Iranian Hezbollah positions.Photo: STR/dpa

Ten people, including a young child, were injured in two Israeli airstrikes carried out on Sunday in southern Lebanon, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said on Monday.

According to a statement made by the Public Health Emergency Operations Center, “nine civilians were wounded in an Israeli airstrike on the town of Burj Rahal in the district of Tyre”.

Also, an Israeli airstrike on the town of Zrariyeh in the Sidon district left a child critically wounded.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said an Israeli military unit crossed into Lebanese territory after midnight, moving from the Khallat Wardeh border area toward the vicinity of Aita al-Shaab. It has taken position there.

Despite a ceasefire agreement between Lebanon's Hezbollah and Israel that aimed at ending over a year of conflict, Israel continues to target various parts of Lebanon particularly in the south often claiming they target Hezbollah fighters or positions associated with the group.

Under the terms of the ceasefire, Hezbollah agreed to withdraw from areas south of the Litani River - approximately 30 kilometers from the Israeli border - and dismantle its military infrastructure there. In exchange, the Lebanese Army and United Nations peacekeepers (UNIFIL) were to strengthen their presence in the region.

Israel, for its part, was required to withdraw from territories it occupied during the conflict. However, it has maintained control over five strategic highlands, which Lebanon continues to demand be vacated.