KRG Political Crisis Deepens As PUK Threatens Split

13 Nov 2026 Issue: 69 / 46 By: Yesar Al-Maleki

The Kurdistan Region of Iraq is in the throes of its most severe political crisis in the post-Saddam era. Divisions between the two main parties are widening, the US is pulling support and Baghdad’s influence over its oil sector is growing. Against this backdrop, the region’s most important gas field came under a major attack this week.

The power-sharing agreement that has underpinned the political landscape in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq for more than two decades is under severe strain and could collapse entirely. For decades, the rival Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) parties have dominated the region, and in 2006 formed a single government, bringing to an end the previous dual administration system (MEES, 15 May 2006).

The power-sharing arrangement has been fraying for years and is now on the brink of collapse. On 4 November, the KDP unilaterally moved to reconvene the region’s parliament after two years of failed talks between the two parties to form a new government following the 2024 parliamentary election. In response, the PUK withdrew its ministers from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and is threatening to establish a rival administration in its areas of control in Sulaymaniyah and Halabja provinces. (CONTINUED - 3099 WORDS)