Kurds Struggle to Avoid Regional Conflicts

"It's their geopolitics that dictates their decisions," said Hiwa Osman, an analyst of Iraqi and Kurdish affairs based in Erbil. "The difference is understandable: The KDP lives on the border with Syria, the Islamic State [IS] and Turkey. The PUK lives on the borders of Iran and [the rest of] Iraq and has no borders with Turkey."

The occasionally divergent policies on important issues in Iraq and the region are due to longstanding mutual distrust between the parties. Instead of empowering the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to formulate and direct Kurdish policy on Iraqi and regional issues, the KDP and PUK appear to be taking affairs into their own hands.

While the KDP is advancing its vision through its control of KRG senior positions such as president and prime minister, the PUK acts relatively independently using its affiliated armed forces. The latter also has control over local administrations in Kirkuk and Sulaimaniyah provinces, putting it at odds sometimes with official KRG policy.

For instance, while the KRG (and KDP) are against the formation of Iranian-backed paramilitary Popular Mobilization Units in areas under the Kurdish peshmerga's control, the PUK has adopted a more lukewarm position, allowing some units to operate in areas under PUK control.

During a civil war in the mid-1990s, the KDP and PUK fought over limited local resources. The KDP came to rely on Turkey for assistance, and later the Iraqi government, while the PUK enjoyed Iran's support. At the end of the bloody war in 1997, the two parties established separate spheres of dominance, with the PUK controlling southern Iraqi Kurdistan and the KDP controlling the north.