After Baghdad and Erbil arrived at an agreement for establishing a joint administration for the disputed Sinjar district in northern Iraq, it looks like the federal government of Iraq and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) will make a similar arrangement for Kirkuk.
This was discussed by Iraqi President Barham Salih who had traveled to Erbil on Monday to meet with the leadership of the Kurdistan Region.
Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani, Prime Minister Masrour Barzani and parliament Speaker Rewaz Fayiq met with Salih to discuss a range of issues, among them the forthcoming early elections, protecting foreign diplomatic missions and the disputed Kurdish areas.
A senior official revealed the details of the meeting to Asharq Al-Awsat and said that the leaders had addressed normalizing the status of Kirkuk and other disputed areas.
They also discussed the possibility of the Peshmerga, the military forces of the autonomous KRG, returning to the disputed areas as part of the Iraqi armed forces, the source added.
Salih, according to the source, tackled “the elections and the health situation in light of the coronavirus pandemic, the Sinjar agreement, employee salaries, the problems of the region, Baghdad, the status of Kirkuk and the 2021 budget.”
The Sinjar agreement involves understandings on security, civil administration, reconstruction and service rehabilitation and the return of internally displaced persons.
The agreement includes understandings to withdraw all illegal armed groups from the area, restore the local administration and appoint a new mayor.
“Salih will meet with Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) leader Massoud Barzani after meeting with KRG’s heads of state, government and parliament,” KDP media office advisor Kifah Mahmoud told Asharq Al-Awsat.
Mahmoud pointed out that Barzani and Salih will discuss the economic situation in Iraq in general, the Sinjar agreement and the recent attacks against the US embassy in Baghdad.
