The Kirkuk-Garmian Leadership Council Head Kamal Kirkuki said the conditions include being able to raise the flag of the Kurdistan Region, the return of Peshmerga to the governorate, and the appointment of a new governor.
Kirkuki told a KDP-affiliated media outlet that their conditions for normalizing the situation in the governorate are removing federal military forces and Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) militia groups from within Kirkuk city, the return of the Peshmerga to the outskirts of the city, and handing over responsibility of the city’s security to the local police forces.
He said that acting Governor of Kirkuk Rakan Said al-Jabouri has called for a meeting with the KDP officials on several occasions, but his party has turned him down.
“The [KDP] owns the dossier of Kirkuk and will not give up on it until it is resolved,’ he said, adding that al-Jabouri should be prosecuted on corruption charges.
“If it had not been for the October 16 treason, we would now be discussing independence and becoming a state with the Iraqi government,” Kirkuki said.
On October 16, 2017, the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF)and the PMF retook the city from the Peshmerga in response to the Kurdistan Region’s independence referendum.
Many in the KDP blame members of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) for withdrawing the party’s Peshmerga in the face of the coming assault by the ISF and PMF.
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