Kirkuk The leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), Shakhwan Abdullah, a member of the negotiating delegation of the Kurdistan Regional Government to normalize the situation in Kirkuk, refused KDP’s return to Kirkuk without weapons.

Abdullah, who is the party’s candidate in Kirkuk for the upcoming elections, said in a press statement: “The KDP will not return to Kirkuk without weapons. No one can oblige the KDP to return without weapons. We will not return to Kirkuk if we do not have a force to protect our headquarters. So we will have a force to protect the headquarters, not an armed force with heavy weapons, but rather to protect our headquarters. ”

He added, “Our conditions for returning to Kirkuk are to evacuate all the party’s headquarters and hand them over to us, and all the lands and homes that were seized must be returned to their owners, and the militias removed from inside the city of Kirkuk, and the security file must be entrusted to the local government in Kirkuk.”

The Kurdistan Democratic Party withdrew from Kirkuk and most of the other disputed areas following the events of October 16, 2017 and the success of the law enforcement plan.

In an interview with a number of Iraqi satellite channels on May 8, Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi affirmed that the KDP should restore its headquarters in Kirkuk according to its social entitlement without armed men.” He pointed to the formation of a joint committee between the federal government and the Kurdistan Regional Government for this purpose.

Source: National Iraqi News Agency