Salih appears to be confident that there is hardly anyone left in the PUK-controlled parts of Iraqi Kurdistan who can challenge him. He was very close to the recently deceased Jalal Talabani, a founding member of the PUK. Talabani’s widow, Hero Ibrahim Ahmad, is considered by many to be the defacto leader of the PUK. Nawshirwan Mustafa, the leader of the oppositional Change movement, which was formed by breakaways from the PUK, also died earlier this year. So there appears to be a lack of visible, viable political leadership in the PUK-controlled areas.
In his video, Salih announced that his was a coalition in which he hoped to gather all the other parties and political groups outside of the PUK and Kurdistan’s other major party, the Kurdistan Democratic Party, or KDP.
This includes the various Islamic parties in Iraqi Kurdistan and potentially also the more controversial Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, which is based in Turkey but has some activities in the Kurdish region. It also includes the region’s major opposition party, the Change movement.
This desire to form an opposition movement of sorts immediately puts him at loggerheads with the two establishment parties.
“We want to bring political figures and parties together under one umbrella,” Sulaiman Abdullah Yunis, formerly of the PUK and now spokesperson for Salih’s new alliance, confirmed. “After leaving the PUK, Salih has planned for two circumstances. The first is how to deal with elections if they are held as scheduled. The second is what to do if the elections are not held.”
If the latter happens – as is quite possible given the problems around the referendum and the internal political dissent in Iraqi Kurdistan right now – the new alliance will continue its work, Yunis told NIQASH.
Direct talks with other parties have already begun, sources say. Mohammed Rauf and Aram Qadir, senior members of the Kurdistan Islamic Union, have already agreed to work with Salih.
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