Iraq's Kurds have finally formed a new government as of Wednesday following months of debate, according to Agence France Presse.
Premier Nechirvan Barzani told AFP, "Today we announce the formation of the government in complicated circumstances."
Since September, Kurdistan's top political parties were debating how to award seats, particularly with the new addition of the opposition Goran movement to the "historic duopoly" leadership of the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, according to the report.
However, it was not clear from Barzani's announcement as to how ministry leadership would be divided.
However, Barzani did take the opportunity to use the government announcement as a platform to call for Kurdish unity during troubled times.
"As we needed (Kurdish unity) in the year 2003 to protect the gains of our people, today we need the same stance to protect the areas of Kurdistan outside the administration of the region," he said, in reference to the overthrow of former dictator Saddam Hussein and the Kurds' desire to incorporate some lands of northern Iraq into their autonomous region despite objections from Baghdad.
As turmoil continues to envelope Iraq, the Kurds have in part been able to seize some of these northern lands, but at the risk of countering some militants in the area as well.
President Barzani has thus called on retired Kurdish fighters to re-enlist to "support the [Kurdish] peshmerga [security] forces and prepare for all possibilities," according to the report.
