“Whatever decision the PUK makes, we welcome it and we congratulate them,” Mirani said.

According to NRT he added: “We hope they start working soon to fulfill the agreement we had with the late Mam Jalal.”

Although the two parties currently sit in government together, they have a decades-long rivalry, which included several years of civil war in the 1990s.

They continue to clash frequently over policy and personality. Following the September 2018 regional elections, it took the two ten months to agree to form a government along with the Gorran Movement.

Reporter’s code: 50101