The Arab Council in Kirkuk has called for sending more troop reinforcements to the multi-ethnic province to defuse security threats and also emphasized the need to form a joint administration.
Rakan al-Jiburi, acting governor of Kirkuk and a leading member of the council speaking to reporters following the Arab Council’s second congress on Saturday, March 9th, stressed the significance of establishing a joint administration in Kirkuk in the participation of the diverse components of the province.
He also indicated that a committee has been formed to distribute the administrative posts, hoping that an agreement would be reached in the future meetings.
The power sharing scheme in Kirkuk by which 32% of the posts would be allocated for each of the Kurdish, Arab and Turkmen component has been rejected by the Kurds, who retained a majority of the provincial council seats.
We reject that Kirkuk become part of the political agreements between the KRG and the federal government
Hatam Ta’I, spokesman to the Arab Council read a statement at the news conference which was attended by KirkukNow correspondent in which he called for the dispatch of extra troops to Kirkuk to face remnants of the Islamic State (IS) group and face the security threats.
“We reject that Kirkuk become part of the political agreements between the Kurdistan regional government (KRG) and the Iraqi federal government”, the statement read.
The Arab Council urged the federal government and the United Nations to work to ensure the release of Arab citizens whom they say were detained by Kurdish security forces.
The statement also emphasized the need to rehabilitate the villages which were destroyed during the war against IS.
The majority of the political parties representing the Arab component in Kirkuk gathered in a united front called the Arab Council which also includes Arab tribal. The front won 3 seats in the 2018 general elections in Iraq.
