Kurdish Peshmerga Forces won’t withdraw from Kirkuk until restoration of its stability, Minister says.

KIRKUK / IraqiNews.com – The Minister of Peshmerga (Kurdish forces) in north Iraq ’s Kurdistan Region, has said on Wednesday that his forces would not withdraw from the northern Province of Kirkuk until the restoration of security and stability to the Province.   “The Peshmerga forces has not entered in the city of Kirkuk, but had been mobilized on its outside borders,   in order to protect the citizens and both public and private properties,” Sheikh Jaafar Mustapha told IraqiNews.com news agency, adding that “coordination existed between the Peshmerga and security forces in the Province, in this respect.”   Arab and Tukroman members of Kirkuk Province’s Council had told IraqiNews.com news agency recently that the Peshmerga forces had been mobilized outside Kirkuk, in response to an Iraqi government’s demand, fearing the entrance of armed groups to the Province, but the Iraqi Turkoman Front had demanded their withdrawal, considering their presence as “illegal and standing counter to the Iraqi constitution.”   Notworthy is that the Vice-Chairman of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), Nichervan Barzani, had stated that the Peshmerga forces, stationed outside Kirkuk “are defending the components of the city,” reiterating that the movement of those forces to the area had taken place through coordination with the Iraqi government.   Kirkuk is 280 kms to the northeast of Baghdad .   RT / SKH       1039