Iraqi PM claims decision on disputed territories is final

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi has claimed that the deployment and installation of Iraqi troops in disputed territories between Iraq and the Kurdistan Region is conclusive.

“I will not be making any concessions to the Kurds in return for their support,” Abadi told Almayadeen news agency in an interview on Wednesday.

The status of disputed territories remains one of the key issues between the Federal Government of Iraq and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), which includes land stretching from the border of Iran to Syria, such as the towns of Khanaqin, Sinjar (Shingal), and the province of Kirkuk.

Peshmerga forces advanced to protect Kirkuk shortly after the emergence of the Islamic State (IS) in 2014 and subsequent collapse of the Iraqi army.

The Kurdish forces remained there until October 2017, when Iraqi troops and the Iran-backed Hashd al-Shaabi militias took over the disputed territories in response to the Kurdistan Region’s independence referendum in September.

“Permanent,” Abadi replied when asked about how long the Iraqi forces would remain in the contested territories.

Abadi said Iraqi forces are already deployed at the Sulaimani and Erbil airports, further elaborating on the status of the central government’s presence in the Kurdistan Region with “even the Iraqi Intelligence Service [active] in the region.”

“They [the Kurds] are Iraqi citizens, there is no difference between one and the other, we are firm on that,” the Iraqi Prime Minister stated, adding his modus operandi was not against the Kurds and was only meant “to unite” the country with conviction.

While campaigning in Kurdistan on April 25, Abadi had proclaimed an “end” to the era of racism in Iraq against the Kurds.

The Prime Minister will be participating in the May 12 parliamentary elections as the head of the Nasr (Victory) Coalition, a reference to the triumph over IS.

Meanwhile, senior Kurdistan Region officials have repeatedly called on the central government in Baghdad to implement articles in the constitution related to the “disputed” territories which have been ignored for years.

According to Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution, the status of those contested territories was supposed to be determined through a referendum in 2005. However, no such plebiscite has taken place.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany