As soon as Hiro Ibrahim, the wife of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, returned to the city of Sulaymaniyah last week, leaders of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), headed by president of the Kurdistan Region Massoud Barzani, began holding frequent meetings with her. The official objective of these visits was to discuss the Kurdish-Iraqi situation, while its implicit purpose was to maintain the strategic alliance between the two parties and preserve the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) after Talabani’s departure so as not to upset the balance of power in the region.

Hiro Ibrahim, a prominent PUK leader, had accompanied her husband to Germany, where he was urgently transferred at the end of December for medical treatment. She returned last week to the city of Sulaymaniyah, north of Baghdad, and took part in a series of meetings between the two main parties in the region, the PUK and KDP, with the participation of Barzani.

A statement issued after the meeting on Sunday, Jan. 13 read that all parties stressed that Jalal Talabani does not belong only to the PUK, but to all Iraqi Kurds. The statement added that Barzani underlined the need to preserve the alliance with the PUK.

The two main parties in Iraq’s Kurdish region hold 59 out of 111 seats in the Iraqi Kurdistan Parliament (IKP), and 42 seats in the Iraqi Council of Representatives. The Kurdish opposition has 34 seats, while the largest share is for the Movement for Change that split from the PUK and has 25 seats. The Kurdistan Islamic Union holds six seats, while the Islamic Group in Kurdistan holds four.