NIQASH: Can you tell us more about what underlies all this ongoing enmity between authorities in Iraqi Kurdistan and the federal authorities in Baghdad?
Al-Tayeb: We disagree with the Arab politicians who are Shiite Muslims because they want to establish an Islamic state similar to that which exists in Iran. And we disagree with the Arab politicians who are Sunni Muslims because they still dream of Arabism and of creating a nationalist state such as that which existed before [in Saddam Hussein’s time; his Baath party was staunchly Arabist, which means their ideology was all about uniting Arab nations – this necessarily excluded the Kurdish]. We don’t agree with either of those visions. We want a democratic, federal Iraq. And that’s the main reason for this conflict.
NIQASH: Recently there have been attempts made to bring all of these parties, including your own bloc, to a conference table. What are your thoughts on this?
Al-Tayeb: We do believe that dialogue is the best solution. And we do support the idea of the national conference, mainly because there have been many breaches of the Erbil Agreement [formulated to end a nine month dispute over who should run the government following 2010 elections] upon which this current government was founded.
That agreement didn’t just specify who should be running which ministries, it defined the role of government and stressed that, when it came to important laws, that there should be a consensus reached in order to pass them. But a lot of the Erbil Agreement has not been enacted.
NIQASH: So do you think that this reconciliation conference will be held soon?
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