ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Former Iraqi Prime Minister and head of the State of Law Coalition Nouri al-Maliki is set to visit Erbil on Thursday to discuss the formation of the next federal cabinet with Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) President Masoud Barzani. 

The New Region has learned that Maliki will seek Barzani’s take on what the Kurds’ requests are for the next cabinet. 

Iraq's 2025 parliamentary elections saw Maliki's coalition win 29 seats in the legislature, second only to incumbent Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani's Reconstruction and Development Alliance.

The KDP, meanwhile, won 27 seats after surpassing a one-million-vote campaign target, becoming the first Kurdish party to achieve such a feat.

No party won enough seats to earn a parliamentary majority, with inter-party negotiations to form the next Iraqi cabinet being essential as a result.

Maliki, who served as premier between 2006 and 2014, remains a strong force in Iraqi politics, having been a key pillar in the currently ruling Coordination Framework and having presided over multiple episodes of prickly relations between Baghdad and Erbil.

The Kurdistan Region’s financial disputes with the federal government are ongoing despite the signing of a landmark deal to resume Kurdish oil exports through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline in September, which had been halted for 30 months after a Paris-based arbitration court ruled that Ankara had violated a 1973 pipeline agreement by allowing the KRG to export oil independently from Baghdad.

Baghdad has also repeatedly and strategically withheld the Region's civil servant salaries as a means of pressuring Erbil.

Barzani has repeatedly called on Baghdad to deal with the Region based on the provisions of the 2005 Iraqi Constitution, which Kurdish parties have long argued have yet to be truly implemented.

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has repeatedly stated that Erbil demands its full share of the federal budget from Baghdad come 2026.

It has also called for the implementation of Article 140 of the constitution, which is especially pertinent for territories whose sovereignty is disputed between the KRG and the federal government.

Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution mandates a process to outline a clear and definitive boundary in the disputed areas by introducing a referendum to determine the will of the residents living on the lands. The implementation of the article has been continuously delayed by the Iraqi government.