MESOPOTAMIA NEWS : FIRST DECISIONS OF NEW KURDISTAN IRAQI GOVERNMENT

 

 

Iraq

New Iraqi Kurdistan Government Created: On July 10, Iraqi Kurdistan formed a new government under Prime Minister Masoud Barzani. After nine months of discussion, the three main parties—the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), and Gorran (Change) movement—reached a compromise on their ministerial nominations. Kurdish parliament confirmed 21 ministers, although the controversial post of the natural resources minister remains vacant. The KDP and PUK fueled the main dispute surrounding the appointment of a new governor in Kirkuk, a wealthy oil province. The parties finally agreed on Taib Jabar, a Kurdish engineer and poet from Kirkuk. Al-Monitor reported that Jabar “is close to the PUK, but doesn’t have a partisan post.”

In other news, the Iraqi government will administer identification papers to children born under Islamic State (IS) rule, effectively changing its previous position on the issue. It was reported in June that 45,000 children in Iraq do not have Iraqi state identification because their birth documents were issued from “IS-affiliated Sharia courts.” Although the Iraqi government previously refused to accept these documents, special tribunals will now be created to register children born in IS territory, stated Rapporteur for the Parliamentary Human Rights Committee Whida al-Jamili. Al-Monitor reports that the process will be particularly difficult for children born to IS foreign fighters as their parents entered the country illegally and many are dead or detained.

 

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