In a lengthy statement posted on Facebook, Bakhtiar said that he was receiving treatment at Vivantes Hospital in Berlin and compared the alleged poisoning to past attempts on his life, including one in 2005 by al-Qaeda in Iraq whose anniversary was last week.

But citing Kurdish culture and the prestige of late PUK Leader Mam Jalal and several other former officials, he refused to disclose further details.

Bakhtiar’s claims come several months after PUK Co-President Bafel Talabani also claimed to have been poisoned by political rivals. His camp has promised to release proof of the claims, but has not done so.

In recent days, several other PUK figures have also made similar statements alleging that they have been poisoned as well without producing evidence.

The allegations are apparently the latest development in the power struggle between Talabani and his co-president, Lahur Sheikh Jangi.

In early July, Talabani and his younger brother, Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani, removed several of Sheikh Jangi’s family members and allies from key security positions, closed down a media outlet belonging to his wing of the party, and tried to push him to step aside from his position and leave the country, which he has refused to do.

In his statement, Bakhtiar said that the PUK has lost its way since the Fourth Party Congress in 2019, as demonstrated by the fact that "300,000 voters took back [their] confidence” by not showing up to vote for the party in the recent Iraqi parliamentary election, a reference to the decrease in the party’s raw vote from 2018.

At the congress, Sheikh Jangi garnered the most votes in elections for the party’s powerful General Leadership Council, which came as somewhat of a surprise. In the months after that, the party devised the co-leadership arrangement between Talabani and Sheikh Jangi, but the rivalry between the two merely intensified before coming to a head in July.

"By intensifying tensions within the [PUK], the united lines within the [PUK] came to an end,” Bakhtiyar said, also criticizing his colleagues on the High Political Council by saying that it should not have let the party to reach this "unfavorable day.”

"Even if we could not resolve the problems, it was possible for them not to end this way. Unfortunately, worse is coming.”

Reporter's code: 50101