Pointing out that the party's last congress was not a real one, Mala Bakhtiar said if he and his party colleagues had insisted on their positions before the congress, the PUK would have another split.

The PUK senior official stressed that the current differences between the party and the Kurdistan Democratic Party are not only over the presidency of Iraq, but also the result of young and opportunistic group actions in the PUK leadership as well as the unresolved and pilled-up tensions between the two ruling parties in the Kurdistan Region.

He described the group in the PUK as some people who consider opposition to the KDP as a way to strengthen the PUK, while the revered PUK Leader Jalal Talabani saw the strategic agreement with the KDP as crucial.

According to Mala Bakhtiar, the opinion of the Supreme Political Council and the Interests of PUK does have any influence in the party at present.

He also pointed out that the party had not been successful in performing its duties after the congress, and that the party's popular position had declined, and that it had lost 170,000 votes in the recent Iraqi parliamentary elections.

He also warned that if relations between the two parties are destroyed, the structure and experience of the Kurdistan region will be destroyed, and disagreements between them and other parties will lead to a loss of control over the situation in the region.

Reporter's code: 50101