Sinjar Agreement ‘important step’ in preventing terrorism in Iraq, Kurdistan: Iraqi PM in Turkey

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi described the Sinjar Agreement, recently signed between his government and the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), as an “important step” in efforts to prevent terrorist organizations from entering Iraqi borders.

The premier's remarks came during a press conference held following his meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on Thursday on his first visit as prime minister to neighboring Turkey.

According to provisions in the Sinjar Agreement, aimed to stabilize the Yezidi-(Ezidi)majority town, the security of Sinjar would be handled by Iraq’s state security forces and “outside forces” or armed militias must vacate the area.

Read More: KRG and Baghdad reach administrative, security agreement on Sinjar

The agreement, which drew widespread support both from local political actors as well as international ones, has not yet achieved what could be called its primary objective, that of forcing Iranian-backed militias of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) out of the area.

Kurdistan Region Peshmerga forces repelled and foiled an attack on Wednesday at dawn from the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) while it was trying to cross the Syrian border, according to the Ministry of Peshmerga.

The agreement could prevent “what recently took place in Sinjar or on the Iraq-Syria border,” said Prime Minister Kadhimi, describing it as “an important step”.

Kadhimi’s visit to Turkey comes as both nations eye further security cooperation, especially on the presence of PKK militants in Iraq, against which Ankara regularly launches air raids.

The Kurdistan Region has on many occasions asked both Turkey and PKK to take their decades-long deadly conflict away from the civilians of Kurdistan as they have been the main victim of the bloody confrontations that take place.

During the press conference, the Turkish president welcomed Iraq’s latest efforts in combating terrorism and reaffirmed his country’s willingness to stand by them.

Editing by John J. Catherine