Baghdad and Erbil on Tuesday took a step towards resolving their differences about disputed areas and agreed to coordinate anti-ISIS security operations in them.
The Iraqi Joint Operations Command announced establishing centers for coordination between Baghdad and Erbil to facilitate the staging of joint field operations.
In a statement, the Command said that it hosted a meeting of Iraqi and Kurdish military officials in Baghdad to discuss issues of common security concern along the line separating the Iraqi and Kurdish forces in the disputed areas.
Both sides agreed to “start opening two main joint security coordination centers in Baghdad and Erbil, in addition to forming joint field security and military committees to assess security challenges.”
A delegation from the Ministry of Peshmerga visited Baghdad on Tuesday morning to discuss the establishment of coordination centers between Baghdad and Erbil.
“These efforts come to fill the security gaps separating the Iraqi federal forces and the Peshmerga,” the Command’s spokesman Major General Tahseen al-Khafaji told Asharq Al-Awsat.
Khafaji said that terror groups have been exploiting those gaps.
Addressing the coordination plans for Kirkuk and the Nineveh Plains and the deployment of Peshmerga forces there, Khafaji said: “Coordination began in Diyala province and its success will determine extending coordination to other regions.”
“The issue of the return of Peshmerga forces to Kirkuk was not discussed in this meeting,” he added.
The Secretary-General of the Kurdish Peshmerga Ministry Lieutenant General Jabbar Yawar told Asharq Al-Awsat that the arrangement reached between Baghdad and Erbil stipulates for field committees to meet in Kirkuk, Makhmur, and Nineveh to draft action plans.
Iraqi military expert and retired Brigadier General Hassan Zohair said that coordination between Iraqi forces and the Peshmerga is crucial given that it will deter armed factions and their intentions to exploit security vacuum.
