In an interview with the Kurdish service of the Voice of America radio and in response to a question about whether Kurds are seeking office in Baghdad or that the are looking for salaries of the Kurdistan region’s employees Region, Muthanna Amin said Kurdish parties underscore both demands in support for the cabinet of the new Iraqi prime minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi.

The MP further added that 15 Iraqi parliamentarians, but the representatives of the PUK and the KDP, have emphasized on both of the demands but have never addressed the issue of the position or office in the new Iraqi government, but the two ruling have demanded for ministries and posts as well as the demands of the people of the region and their needs and the reason behind the policy is that they are the ruling parties in the region.

He also said that the issue of the Kurds' share in Iraqi government positions is directly related with the amount of financial bonus, and that the more Kurds have positions in the central government, the more funding and rights they can obtain.

He further noted that the PUK and the KDP are the ruling parties in the region and they are responsible for providing the salaries of the region’s employees and they are responsible for distributing the budget and salaries and the people of the region asking the parties for their demands and therefore are also working to secure more offices and ministries in order to obtain a higher budget for the region and its people.

When asked about the reasons for rejecting Kurdish candidates to fill the positions of the central government by Shiites, he noted that Shiites also face internal differences, adding that they are not opposed to Kurdish candidates, but the problem is that some Shiites disagree with the KDP while others reject the KDP candidates for the proposed position as they have troubles with the KDP and the tension will remain unsolved unless a strong agreement is reached between the Shiites and the KDP.

Muthanna Amin noted that that was the reason behind Fouad Hussein’s , a KDP candidate, failure to become Iraq’s president in 2018. Shiites decided to reject the KDP candidate and eventually vote for the PUK Candidate Barham Salih to become the next Iraqi President. Now, it is likely that Fouad Hussein will be nominated as a KDP candidate to run Iraq’s ministry of foreign affairs but he would fail, for that special reason, to receive the needed votes to run the office.

When asked about the Iraqi parliament's lack of vote for the Kurdish candidate as the new justice minister, in which Abdul Rahman Mustafa nominated as the new Iraqi justice minister, he stated that the candidate was rejected by the lawmakers after they found out that he was a KDP candidate and the Shiite MPs rejected him and did not vote for him.

He also noted that the PUK announced to the Kurdish Members of the Iraqi Parliament that Abd Al-Rahman Mustafa is not a candidate for the party and has requested that they do not vote for him, continuing to say that the Kurdish lawmakers also did not vote for Abdul Rahman Mustafa because they do not agree with the dispute between the KDP and the PUK and also the KDP’s decision to introduce three candidate for three Iraqi ministries in the new government of Prime Minister al-Kadhimi.

Reporter’s code: 50101