Division between Iraq’s Kurdish parties risks undermining Kurdistan region’s autonomy

29 Oct 2026 12:24 PM

EXPERT COMMENT

The KDP and PUK largely agree on Kurdish issues in Turkey, Iran and Syria. But division on how to govern at home could invite outside interference and undermine hard-won self-governance.

Two years after Iraq’s Kurdistan Region went to the polls to elect a new government, the KDP and the PUK – the region’s two largest parties – have still failed to reach an agreement to form the new government. A caretaker government, originally elected in September 2018, remains in charge.

This situation is taking the Kurdistan Region down a path of profound and possibly permanent division. Its longstanding partners in Europe and the US have grown frustrated with its latent dysfunction and are no longer willing to play referee. This leaves it more vulnerable to interference from regional powers who are better placed to adapt and can play a longer game.

The main impediment to moving forward is not petty disagreements between the two parties over ministerial positions, as is sometimes claimed. Instead, the impasse stems from the collapse of the 2006 Strategic Agreement between the KDP and the PUK. The parties no longer share the same basic vision for how the Kurdistan Region should operate. The formal and informal frameworks that bound the two parties together for the last two decades are no longer functioning.

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