For those watching the process of government formation in Iraq, February has been an eventful month.

The Federal Court provided its interpretation of Article 70 of the Iraqi constitution as saying that parliamentary quorum to elect the president is achieved when two-thirds of members of parliament are present. As a result, parliament failed to elect the president within 30 days of electing the speaker, as required by the constitution.

The court also prevented Hoshyar Zebari, the former Foreign Minister of Iraq, from running as a candidate for the presidency, citing a parliamentary vote of no-confidence in 2016 when he was Finance Minister, on allegations of corruption. Mr. Zebari has always denied those charges and he has never been convicted by any court. The Federal Court’s decision is widely viewed as politically motivated. Mr. Zebari was the Kurdistan Democratic Party’s candidate for the presidency.

The Federal Court on February 15 issued another disquieting decision, which the Kurdistan Region’s leadership has described as ‘unacceptable’ and ‘a flagrant violation of the Kurdistan Region’s constitutional rights and powers.’

The Federal Court said that Kurdistan Region’s 2007 oil and gas law is unconstitutional and the KRG should hand over its oil to the federal government.

The timing of the court’s decision has raised questions about its motivation.

President Nechirvan Barzani today, February 28, held a meeting with Kurdistan’s three other presidencies – the

heads of the government, parliament and judiciary – who said the court ruling is unacceptable and emphasized that the Kurdistan Region will continue to exercise its constitutional rights.

A few days after the federal court’s ruling, President Barzani and Prime Minister Masrour Barzani were at the Munich Security Conference, meeting with other leaders from across the Middle East, Europe and the United States, including several members of the US Congress, among them Senator Lindsey Graham and Representatives Adam Schiff, Elissa Slotkin and Darrell Issa. In the congressional meetings, both sides expressed their appreciation for the US-Kurdistan partnership and discussed recent developments in Iraq and the region.

We are honored to have Congressman Jim Langevin as the guest of our monthly podcast, Kurdistan in America. Mr. Langevin, who sits on the House Armed Services Committee, not only overcame adversity but used it to motivate his public service in the US Congress. He discusses the US-Kurdistan relationship and how it has evolved from a humanitarian mission in 1991 to a partnership today.

That partnership includes business ties, and we are delighted that in March, two American trade delegations will be visiting Kurdistan. In early March, the US Kurdistan Business Council will be taking a trade mission that includes companies that have already invested in Kurdistan and Iraq, as well as new businesses that are visiting the country for the first time.

Later in the month, the Chaldean American Chamber of Commerce, which is based in Michigan, will be taking executives that will look at potential investment in their ancestral land.

The KRG welcomes these visits and looks forward to expanding our economic and cultural ties with the United States.

The Foreign Affairs Institute of Greece hosted a panel discussion on February 28 on the interactive nature of the Kurdish-US relationship, with a focus on the Kurdistan Region in Iraq.

Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman, KRG Representative to the United States, joined Dr. Marianna Charountaki, from the University of Lincoln in the UK, and Dr. Morgan Kaplan, Fellow at Carnegie Endowment, in the discussion.

Cambridge University Press hosted an online discussion on a newly published volume: The Cambridge History of the Kurds, a comprehensive book exploring the social, political and economic features of the Kurds form the 15th to the 21st century. 

Volume editors Hamit Bozarslan, Cengiz Gunes, and Veli Yadirgi, were joined in the debate by contributors Djene R Bajalan, Choman Hardi, and Isabel Käser.