Kurdistan withdrawal remarks draw Iraqi MPs attack

Baghdad – (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi MPs have expressed anger over remarks by Kurdistan’s president in which he said that his forces would not pull out from areas they had liberated from Islamic State militants.

“Kurdish President Masud Barzani’s declaration violates Article 143 of the Iraqi constitution which had set the borders of the Kurdistan region on the 13th of May, 2003,” said MP Abdul Rahman Al-Luweizi (Nineveh), in statements to All Iraq News website.

Barzani, in a speech on Wednesday before Kurdish army forces, Peshmerga, at the liberated Iraqi town of Bashiqa, said his country would not withdraw from the liberated regions they had recaptured from ISIS based on “agreements” with the United States. His remarks came one day after US ambassador to Iraq, Douglas Silliman, was quoted as saying during a visit to Kurdistan that he was confident Peshmerga were going to pull out.

“There is no value for any agreement with the United States or the federal government. That agreement means an expansion of the region’s borders at the expense of Nineveh province, which is against the constitution that had defined its borders,” said Al-Luweizi.

Haitham al-Jabouri, another MP, urged the Iraqi government to “clarify its stance” towards Barzani’s remarks, or otherwise face the accusation of “betraying its people,” as he put it.

The Iraqi government had agreed with Kurdistan to let the latter join efforts to liberate Iraq from ISIS in return for reaching a future understanding over disputed regions. But as Peshmerga managed to recapture many of the controversial territories, several Kurdish officials and politicians were quoted as saying that their country was not going to cede its territories.