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August 28, 2008
News
VP Hashemi calls on Kurdistan president to attend meeting over army deployment in Khanaqeen
Voices of Iraq
BAGHDAD, Aug. 28 –Iraq’s Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi on Thursday called on Kurdistan region's president Masoud Barazani to join an urgent meeting to discuss deployment og Iraqi army in Diala’s disputed town.
"Al-Hashemi today conferred in a phone call with Barazani the current circumstances in Diala province, and the constitutional ground for the Iraqi armed forces to be present in Khanaqeen suburb (155 km northeast of Baaquba city)," said the vice president office statement received by Voices of Iraq .
"Al-Hashemi and Barazani discussed the political ways to defuse a dangerous crisis foreboding on the horizon," it added.
VP Al-Hashemi called on Barazani to join an urgent meeting of political leaders to discuss Khanaqeen's issue in Baghdad.
Kurdish forces refused Iraqi defense ministry orders to pull out of Kurdish-populated areas of ethnically divided Diala province where they have been deployed for the past two years. But then conceded Iraqi army deployment in some areas of the disputed town of Khanaqeen.
The deployment of Iraqi troops in Khanaqeen unleashed strong protest of Kurdish official, considering the measures as provocative and a political tool to influence Kurd's stances in conroversial provincial polls law.
On Wednesday, the president of Iraq's Kurdistan region, Massoud al-Barazani, expressed his surprise at the raid conducted by Iraqi army personnel on Khanaqin district, which he described as a "safe" area.
The remark was made on during his reception of a high-ranking delegation from the U.S. embassy, according to a statement released by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and received by VOI.
"Khanaqin is a safe area and it's a wonder that the Iraqi army entered it under the pretext of combating terrorism," Barazani said.
The Kurdish president wondered why the Iraqi army did not coordinate with the regional government.
Following an agreement between Kurdish authorities and the central government in Baghdad, Peshmerga forces withdrew from the districts of Qurtuba and Jalawlaa, which are affiliated with Khanaqin.
Peshmerga is a term used by the Kurds to refer to armed Kurdish fighters.
Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution is enacted by the Iraqi parliament to put an end to the controversy over disputed areas, including Kirkuk and Khanaqin.
The article currently stipulates that all Arabs in Kirkuk be returned to their original locations in southern and central Iraqi areas, and formerly displaced residents returned to Kirkuk, 250 km northeast of Baghdad. The article also calls for conducting a census to be followed by a referendum to let the inhabitants decide whether they would like Kirkuk to be annexed to the autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region or having it as an independent province.
These stages were supposed to end on December 31, 2007, a deadline that was later extended to six months to end in July 2008.
Baaquba, the capital city of Diala province, lies 57 km northeast of Baghdad.
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