Iraqi-Kurdish talks make progress despite pending points

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The Iraqi and Kurdish army commanders made progress Saturday in discussions, aiming at ceasefire between the federal and Kurdish Peshmerga forces, but the two sides fell short to agree on some pending points.

Earlier in the day, a joint team from commanders of Iraqi federal forces and Kurdish Peshmerga held a meeting in Mosul to stop clashes between the two sides, as the Iraqi troops are pushing to seize the disputed areas and some border crossing points.

The two sides agreed on several points, but the Kurdish side failed to give clear answers until they return to their leaders in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

Kurdish Peshmerga fighters sit on a military vehicle north of Kirkuk, Iraq. /Reuters Photo

"We have reached an agreement on some points, but there are sticking points that still need to be resolved," Iraqi army's Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Othman al-Ghanmi, told reporters after the meeting.

"There was some progress but definitive solution is in the hands of the other (Kurdish) side. They must return to Kurdistan for consultation and give us their answer," Ghanmi said.

Ghanmi said a "positive atmosphere" prevail in the meeting between the commanders of the federal and Peshmerga forces, adding "there is a need for withdrawal of the Peshmerga to the regional border before 2003."

For his part, Maj. Gen. Najm al-Jubouri commander of Nineveh's Operations Command, who was part of the federal team, told the reporters "the meeting included the return of Kurdish forces to the borderline of 2003 and the handover of the border crossing points to the federal authorities."

The Kurdish top military official had no comments for the media after the meeting which took place in Nineveh's Operations Command inside the former presidential palaces in eastern Mosul.

The meeting came after the Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi late on Friday announced 24-hour halt of movement of the Iraqi security forces to allow a joint Iraq-Kurdish military team to arrange redeployment of federal forces in the disputed areas claimed by Baghdad and the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan.

Kurdish Peshmerga fighters gather north of Kirkuk, Iraq. /Reuters Photo

On Thursday, heavy clashes between the Iraqi forces and Peshmerga as the government troops advanced to seize more disputed areas, in addition to Faysh-Khabur area near the Iraqi-Syrian-Turkish border and to seize the main border crossing point of Ibrahim al-Khalil between Iraq and Turkey.

On October 16, Abadi, who is also Commander-in-Chief of Iraqi forces, ordered government forces to enter the oil-rich Kirkuk province in northern Iraq to regain control of the ethnically-mixed disputed areas.

The Kurds consider the northern Kirkuk province and parts of Nineveh, Diyala and Salahuddin provinces as disputed areas and want them to be incorporated into their region, a move fiercely opposed by the Arabs and Turkmens in the region as well as the Iraqi central government.

Tensions have been running high between Baghdad and the region of Kurdistan after the Kurds held a controversial referendum on the independence of the Kurdistan region and the disputed areas.

Source(s): Xinhua News Agency