The Kurdish Peshmerga forces denied on Thursday accusations launched by Baghdad concerning an agreement that allows the deployment of its forces in the disputed areas, adding that the two sides have never reached such a deal.
The Peshmerga forces also expressed their concern about the current situation in the area, saying “an explosion might blow up at any movement.”
Jabbar Yawar, the general secretary of the Ministry of Peshmerga, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the “game played by the Iraqi Federal government has become odd,” as Baghdad is boringly repeating that it gave the Peshmerga forces one or two days as a deadline to implement certain Iraqi demands.
“It seems that the Iraqi side is suffering from arrogance to a point that it exerts on us conditions usually imposed by a winner in the war, as if we were a foreign state,” he said.
Yawar confirmed that no agreement was signed between the Peshmerga forces and the Iraqi government.
“The situation in the region is very worrying, and there is a possibility that it could explode at any moment due to the fragile agreements, and joint coordination between the two sides,” the general secretary said.
Tension grew up between the two sides after the Peshmerga started to fortify its current positions in anticipation to a possible attack by Iraqi forces.
“Baghdad possesses forced conditions that it tries to impose on the Kurdish side,” Yawar said.
He explained that the Iraqi government sent Iraqi Chief of Staff Iraqi Chief of Staff Gen. Othman al-Ghanimi, who presented to the Minister of the Peshmerga a draft agreement of four points.
Yawar said that from his part, the minister responded to the draft in a five-point letter. But, he said that until now, the two sides failed to reach any signed agreement in order for the Iraqi government to claim that the Peshmerga had withdrew from such a deal.
