Key PUK member says no differences with KDP

ARBIL / IraqiNews.com: A leading member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan said there is an understanding between the PUK and Iraqi Kurdistan President Massoud Barazani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) over the formation of a “strong” government in the region, dismissing differences between the two sides. “There are no differences between the PUK and the KDP over the distribution of responsibilities and posts. There might be some different views over some matters but not amounting to differences,” Fareed Asasirdan told Iraqi News. Asasirdan, who runs Iraqi President Jalal Talabani’s PUK Strategic Research Center, said he was optimistic about the success of the new government in its tasks thanks to an agreement between the two parties over its leadership. Barazani had officially entrusted on Wednesday (Sept. 30) Burham Saleh and his deputy Azad Birwari, both belong to the main two Kurdish parties – Iraqi President Jalal Talabani’s PUK and Barazani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) respectively – to set up a new cabinet The assignment was expressed during a meeting held in the resort of Salah Al-Din in Arbil, more than two months after the semi-autonomous region’s presidential and parliamentary elections on July 25, in which the Kurdistan List, which comprises the PUK and KDP, won 59 out of a total of 111 seats, enabling it to form the government alone. Kurds are currently holding 58 seats inside the Iraqi parliament, 53 of them are reserved for the Kurdistan Alliance (KA) bloc while five others are occupied by the Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU) bloc, out of a total of 275 seats, next only to the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance (UIA). AmR (S) 2