Erbil awaits Baghdad’s response on seven-point proposal

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A member of the Kurdish military delegation in charge of negotiation with Iraq said that they had submitted to their Iraqi counterparts a seven-point paper concerning border and territorial disputes and that they are now waiting to hear back from Baghdad.

“In the latest meeting between the Kurdistan Region and the Iraqi government held on Thursday in Mosul, each side had prepared a seven-point paper for talks. After each side reading the others’ papers, and we receiving Kurdistan political leadership’s consent, we handed a [final] seven-point paper to Iraq and are now awaiting their response,” said Jabar Yawar, Chief of Staff of the Peshmerga Ministry.

Revealing the content of the paper, Yawar said, “Overall, the paper contain the deployment of joint forces to the disputed areas, the numbers of the force and who would command them.”

Yawar said in their paper, they suggested the deployment of “civilian and coalition forces to the border crossings."

Erbil and Baghdad have faced off each other near Fish Khabur where the borders of Iraq, Syria and Turkey meet at a triangle. The Peshmerga and Iraqi army and Hashd al-Shaabi also came to brief clashes last week.

Without providing further details about the seven points, Yawar said there were serious disagreements over three of them.

Iraqi and Kurdish military officials have met a few times under coalition supervision in the past two weeks to settle differences peacefully than through force.

Babakir Zebari, a veteran Peshmerga and former Chief of Staff of the Iraqi army, told Rudaw that Thursday’s talks were a continuation of the previous discussions.

The Iraqi military issued a statement on Wednesday saying that the talks had failed after Kurdish officials withdrew from a draft agreement, bringing the two sides back to “square one.” It called the Peshmerga “armed groups linked to Erbil” and said they will become a target if they confronted federal forces in the disputed areas and on the international borders.

The Peshmerga issued a counter statement, denying that there was an agreement in the first place and described the Iraqi demands as “unconstitutional” and posing a threat to the Kurdistan Region.

The Peshmerga said they are stationed in their defense lines and ready to protect the Kurdistan Region and its people.

Erbil awaits Baghdad’s response on seven-point proposal

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