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ARBIL,
Iraq, (AFP) - Iraq's Kurds, the second largest vote
getter in last month's election, have not yet
decided which party to back in forming the country's
next government, a top official said Sunday.
"For the moment, we have not yet made any alliance,"
said Ruj Nuri Shawis, Iraq's vice president and
right-hand man to Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani.
"We are trying to participate in the formation of a
government uniting all Iraqi parties and we are
trying to get one of the top posts," he told
reporters.
The Kurds, with 77 seats in the country's new
275-seat National Assembly, are positioned to play
the role of kingmaker in choosing the next
government
Both the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance which won the
elections with 140 seats, and caretaker prime
minister Iyad Allawi are vying for the Kurdish
bloc's support in forming the next government.
Shawis, a member of Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic
Party (KDP), said the Kurds had formed a negotiating
committee to meet with other parties.
"The negotiations are going to intensify in the days
to come to prepare for the first meeting of the
national assembly and we are going to resolve all
problems before convening such a meeting," Shawis
said.
The Kurds' key demands in forming the next
government are to preserve the Kurds' virtual
autonomy in the three northern provinces of Arbil,
Dohuk and Sulaimaniyah.
The Kurds also wish to resolve the status of the
multi-ethnic city of Kirkuk, which the long
persecuted ethnic group wants to claim for
Kurdistan.
Their political bloc, known as the Kurdish Alliance,
also want to obtain the post of Iraq's president for
Jalal al-Talabani, the head of the Patriotic Union
of Kurdistan, which governs Sulaimaniyah.
AFP
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