Shafaq News / Member of the Council of Representatives for Kurdistan Democratic Party, Bashar Al-Kiki, revealed on Wednesday that the Iraqi army and the Peshmerga have reached an agreement under the auspices by the US-led international coalition to contain the threat of ISIS in the disputed areas.

The two sides have been holding talks for weeks to find a common formula aimed at filling the security gaps in the disputed areas especially with the augmentation of ISIS attacks.

Erbil, the capital of Kurdistan Region, hosted the last round of talks on Tuesday in the presence of a high-level delegation from the International Alliance.

"The negotiations of the defense and Peshmerga ministries concluded with positive outcomes to solve outstanding problems, close fragile security gaps and end ISIS presence in the disputed areas, as well as coordinate security operations," al-Kiki told Shafaq News agency.

He added that the talks "resulted in an agreement to form 4 security coordination offices between the two parties, one in Nineveh and the rest in the other provinces."

The Peshmerga forces withdrew from the disputed areas after the escalation of tension with the Iraqi forces against the backdrop of the independence referendum in 2017.

The withdrawal came three years after the Peshmerga stationed in those areas, as Kurdish forces prevented them from falling into the hands of ISIS after the Iraqi army fled to the expansion of the organization's militants in 2014.

Since the Peshmerga withdrawal from there, the frequency of attacks has increased markedly, as the organization's militants launch daily attacks on civilian and military targets, leaving victims.

Concerning the details of the agreement and the tasks of the coordination offices, Al-Kiki explained, "the coordination offices will define security responsibilities between the army and the Peshmerga, provided that no force enters into the area of responsibility of the other party without prior coordination."

Al-Kiki considered, "coordination offices are an important step to end the security unrest in the disputed areas."

He asserted that the issue of deploying the Peshmerga forces in the disputed areas is a security issue, not a political one.
Baghdad and Erbil, since April, have been conducting extensive negotiations to reach an agreement on disputes over the region's share of the federal budget and management of the oil wealth.