ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Kirkuk’s security and stability requires co-operation between the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), Baghdad, and provincial authorities, Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi told a National Security Council meeting Sunday.
His comments come just days after at least five people were killed and 15 injured in a series of blasts in the disputed city on Thursday. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.
“Security solutions have to proceed with, and be bolstered by, political efforts and thorough cooperation between all sides without eliminating anyone,” the PM said.
“Daesh is the only enemy, and there needs to be continuity in chasing its remnants,” he added, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group (ISIS).
ISIS seized vast swathes of Iraq and Syrian in the summer of 2014 and threatened to take the oil-rich disputed city of Kirkuk. When Iraqi forces fled, the Peshmerga took control of Kirkuk’s security and successfully defended the city.
However, in October 2017, shortly after the Kurdistan independence referendum, Iraqi forces and Iran-backed Hashd al-Shaabi paramilitias launched an offensive to push the Peshmerga out of Kirkuk.
ISIS remnants have exploited security gaps in the disputed territories to resume the group’s earlier insurgency tactics.
As a result of the Iraqi offensive, Erbil-Baghdad relations hit their lowest ebb in years. Although relations are far from normalized, they have vastly improved since Abdul-Mahdi took office.
Sunday’s meeting was attended by Kirkuk’s acting governor Rakan al-Jabouri and head of Operations Command Saad Harbi.
Jabouri has been accused of discriminating against Kurds, removing several of them from official posts, exacerbating ethnic tensions between Kurds, Arabs, Turkmen, and other minorities in the city. This has come hand in hand with the return of Arab settlers to the province.
Meanwhile, the Kirkuk Operations Command, formed in February, excluded the Peshmerga. Kurdish officials called their exclusion “illegal”.
Abdul-Mahdi’s inclusive rhetoric could mark an important turning point in relations, motivated by the worsening security situation.
The possibility of a joint administration of the disputed territories and an eventual Peshmerga has been hinted in recent months, but does not seem to have moved beyond the formation of committees by the Peshmerga and the Iraqi Ministry of Defense.
Abdul-Mahdi appears to have now made cooperation with the KRG an explicit priority.
“The diversity of the province of Kirkuk and the events occurring call for cooperation between the federal, local and [Kurdistan] Regional Government and its forces,” Abdul-Mahdi said.
Tensions in the province have been further been compounded by the arson of Kurdish-owned farmland, with ISIS, Shiite paramilitias, and Arab settlers named as suspected perpetrators.
Abdul-Mahdi had downplayed the extent of the fires in his weekly press conference last Tuesday. In the same vein, he said the scale of Saturday’s explosions had been “exaggerated greatly.”
His comments come just days after at least five people were killed and 15 injured in a series of blasts in the disputed city on Thursday. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.
“Security solutions have to proceed with, and be bolstered by, political efforts and thorough cooperation between all sides without eliminating anyone,” the PM said.
“Daesh is the only enemy, and there needs to be continuity in chasing its remnants,” he added, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group (ISIS).
ISIS seized vast swathes of Iraq and Syrian in the summer of 2014 and threatened to take the oil-rich disputed city of Kirkuk. When Iraqi forces fled, the Peshmerga took control of Kirkuk’s security and successfully defended the city.
However, in October 2017, shortly after the Kurdistan independence referendum, Iraqi forces and Iran-backed Hashd al-Shaabi paramilitias launched an offensive to push the Peshmerga out of Kirkuk.
ISIS remnants have exploited security gaps in the disputed territories to resume the group’s earlier insurgency tactics.
As a result of the Iraqi offensive, Erbil-Baghdad relations hit their lowest ebb in years. Although relations are far from normalized, they have vastly improved since Abdul-Mahdi took office.
Sunday’s meeting was attended by Kirkuk’s acting governor Rakan al-Jabouri and head of Operations Command Saad Harbi.
Jabouri has been accused of discriminating against Kurds, removing several of them from official posts, exacerbating ethnic tensions between Kurds, Arabs, Turkmen, and other minorities in the city. This has come hand in hand with the return of Arab settlers to the province.
Meanwhile, the Kirkuk Operations Command, formed in February, excluded the Peshmerga. Kurdish officials called their exclusion “illegal”.
Abdul-Mahdi’s inclusive rhetoric could mark an important turning point in relations, motivated by the worsening security situation.
The possibility of a joint administration of the disputed territories and an eventual Peshmerga has been hinted in recent months, but does not seem to have moved beyond the formation of committees by the Peshmerga and the Iraqi Ministry of Defense.
Abdul-Mahdi appears to have now made cooperation with the KRG an explicit priority.
“The diversity of the province of Kirkuk and the events occurring call for cooperation between the federal, local and [Kurdistan] Regional Government and its forces,” Abdul-Mahdi said.
Tensions in the province have been further been compounded by the arson of Kurdish-owned farmland, with ISIS, Shiite paramilitias, and Arab settlers named as suspected perpetrators.
Abdul-Mahdi had downplayed the extent of the fires in his weekly press conference last Tuesday. In the same vein, he said the scale of Saturday’s explosions had been “exaggerated greatly.”
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