Leading Kurdish Parties Strike Broad Provincial Administration Agreement

The two main political parties in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region inked an agreement on provincial administration. (AFP)
The two main political parties in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region inked an agreement on provincial administration. (AFP)
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Leading Kurdish Parties Strike Broad Provincial Administration Agreement

The two main political parties in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region inked an agreement on provincial administration. (AFP)
The two main political parties in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region inked an agreement on provincial administration. (AFP)

The two main political parties in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region inked Monday a “comprehensive agreement” on provincial administration following months of arduous talks.

The deal, signed in Erbil by Nechirvan Barzani of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and Kosrat Rasul Ali of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), should now facilitate the formation of the region’s next government.

Since legislative elections were held last September, political parties in the Kurdistan have struggled to form a new government. The polls saw the KDP win 45 seats in the 111-member Kurdish Assembly and the PUK win 21 seats.

Informed sources said the deal, details of which remain vague, includes 18 items on sharing power and ministerial portfolios between the two parties.

They said the deal should also normalize the administrative situation in the disputed areas between Baghdad and Erbil and that the two parties discussed the appointment of a new governor in Kirkuk.

In principle, the KDP has conceded to the PUK’s demand that the governor be a member of its party.

Officials from both parties said the new four-year agreement is set to replace the so-called “Strategic Agreement” of 2005, which united the Kurdistan Region into a unified KRG administration.

Also, both the PUK and the KDP agreed on the post of Iraqi justice minister, who is traditionally a Kurdish figure.

“Today is a day that will go down in the history of our nation, when the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party signed a political agreement,” said KDP spokesperson Mahmoud Mohammed.

PUK spokesperson Lateef Shiekh Omar told reporters: “It is an agreement that will be the compass and guideline for our joint work for now and the future.”

A committee has been set up to oversee the deal’s implementation.



Hezbollah Says Fired Missiles at Base Near South Israel's Ashdod

Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system operates to intercept incoming projectiles, amid hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in Nahariya, Israel, November 21, 2024. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system operates to intercept incoming projectiles, amid hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in Nahariya, Israel, November 21, 2024. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
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Hezbollah Says Fired Missiles at Base Near South Israel's Ashdod

Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system operates to intercept incoming projectiles, amid hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in Nahariya, Israel, November 21, 2024. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system operates to intercept incoming projectiles, amid hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in Nahariya, Israel, November 21, 2024. REUTERS/Thomas Peter

Hezbollah said its fighters on Thursday fired missiles at a military base near south Israel’s Ashdod, the first time it has targeted so deep inside Israel in more than a year of hostilities.

Hezbollah fighters "targeted... for the first time, the Hatzor air base" east of the southern city, around 150 kilometers from Lebanon’s southern border with Israel, "with a missile salvo," the Iran-backed group said in a statement.

A rocket fired from Lebanon killed a man and wounded two others in northern Israel on Thursday, according to the Magen David Adom rescue service.
The service said paramedics found the body of the man in his 30s near a playground in the town of Nahariya, near the border with Lebanon, after a rocket attack on Thursday.
Israel meanwhile struck targets in southern Lebanon and several buildings south of Beirut, the Lebanese capital.

Israel has launched airstrikes against Lebanon after Hezbollah began firing rockets, drones and missiles into Israel the day after Hamas' attack on Israel last October. A full-blown war erupted in September after nearly a year of lower-level conflict.
More than 3,500 people have been killed in Lebanon, according to the country’s Health Ministry, and over 1 million people have been displaced. It is not known how many of those killed were Hezbollah fighters and how many were civilians.
On the Israeli side, Hezbollah’s aerial attacks have killed more than 70 people and driven some 60,000 from their homes.