“The question of appointing a new governor for Kirkuk will be discussed as the post is a Kurdish quota and the parties have not reached an agreement on that yet,” Abdullah Aliyawai, an advisor to Masum, told Rudaw.
Aliyawai added that President Masum hopes to find a united voice from the Kurdish leadership for talks with Baghdad.
Masum who was in Kirkuk on Monday urged the Kirkuk Provincial Council to “convene and elect a governor for the province and settle all other issues as well.”
Kirkuk fell to Iraqi forces on October 16 after Peshmerga forces pulled out in the face of a major Iraqi assault.
Kirkuk’s Kurdish governor, Najmaldin Karim was subsequently replaced by Rakan al-Jabouri, an Arab, who was nominated by the prime minister.
During his visit the Iraqi President Masum will also meet former Kurdistan Region President Masoud Barzani, who is head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP).
Masum, who started his tour of the Kurdistan Region on Saturday has so far met with officials of his Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and Change Movement (Gorran) in Sulaimani.
Relations between Erbil and Baghdad deteriorated to an almost complete collapse after the Kurdish region held an independence referendum on September 25 and subsequent punitive measures against the Kurdistan Region by the federal government.
“Mr. Fuad Masum has come to the Kurdistan Region to address three questions, including the internal issues of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the question of Kirkuk, and issues between Erbil and Baghdad,” Farhad Alaadin, another advisor to Masum, confirmed to Rudaw.
Masum, a Kurd and member of the PUK, told his party’s media that the three issues are interlinked. He said he would use his full authority to try to resolve the problems.
