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.



UN: Nearly 70% of Verified Gaza War Dead Are Women and Children

FILE PHOTO: Palestinians react after a school sheltering displaced people was hit by an Israeli strike, at Beach camp in Gaza City November 7, 2024. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Palestinians react after a school sheltering displaced people was hit by an Israeli strike, at Beach camp in Gaza City November 7, 2024. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa/File Photo
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UN: Nearly 70% of Verified Gaza War Dead Are Women and Children

FILE PHOTO: Palestinians react after a school sheltering displaced people was hit by an Israeli strike, at Beach camp in Gaza City November 7, 2024. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Palestinians react after a school sheltering displaced people was hit by an Israeli strike, at Beach camp in Gaza City November 7, 2024. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa/File Photo

The UN Human Rights Office said on Friday nearly 70% of the fatalities it has verified in the Gaza war were women and children, and condemned what it called a systematic violation of the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law.
The UN tally since the start of the war, in which Israel's military is fighting Hamas militants, includes only fatalities it has managed to verify with three sources, and counting continues.

The 8,119 victims verified is a much lower number than the toll of over 43,000 provided by Palestinian health authorities for the 13-month-old war. But the UN breakdown of the victims' age and gender backs the Palestinian assertion that women and children represent a large portion of those killed in the war.

This finding indicates "a systematic violation of the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law, including distinction and proportionality," the UN rights office said in a statement accompanying the 32-page report.

"It is essential that there is due reckoning with respect to the allegations of serious violations of international law through credible and impartial judicial bodies and that, in the meantime, all relevant information and evidence are collected and preserved," United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said.

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not immediately respond to a request by Reuters for comment on the report's findings.

"Our monitoring indicates that this unprecedented level of killing and injury of civilians is a direct consequence of the failure to comply with fundamental principles of international humanitarian law," Turk said in a statement.

"Tragically, these documented patterns of violations continue unabated, over one year after the start of the war."

His office found that about 80 percent of all the verified deaths in Gaza had occurred in Israeli attacks on residential buildings or similar housing, and that close to 90 percent had died in incidents that killed five or more people.