The Iraqi Kurdish region, especially in Sulaimani province, has witnessed unrest and clashes between protesters and security forces in recent days. Angry protesters set fire to the offices of political parties, especially the ruling parties of the KDP and the PUK, in several cities in Sulaimani, killing 8 protestors and injuring several others.

To investigate the cause of the unrest, KurdPress news agency asked Joel Wing about the protests. Mr. Wing believes that the two ruling parties are not interested in sharing power as "they do not want to carry out any changes in the economy, they are never going to deal with corruption and cronyism, etc. They have been in power for decades now and want to maintain the status quo."

"12% is what the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has been getting from Baghdad recently so that's not a real change," the American analyst and Iraq affairs expert said about tensions between the two governments in Erbil and Baghdad.

"The disagreements are due to the KRG not following any of the recent budget agreements. It says it will export oil for Baghdad and doesn't. It said it would hand over some of its revenues in August to Baghdad and didn't. There is no trust between the two sides as a result which means the budget deal with have major problems in parliament," Mr Wing also said about the cause of tensions between the KRG and the Iraqi central government.

"Biden is rather infamous for having some very controversial opinions about Iraq in the past. The question really is about whether he will make the Middle East in general a priority because if it's not Iraq will go largely ignored no matter what Biden's past relationship with the country has been," he said about US President-elect Joe Biden's outlook towards Iraq.

Reporter's code: 50101