Barzani: There Must Be Consensus Between Baghdad, Ankara

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Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government President Masoud Barzani has said “We are of the opinion that there must be a consensus between Iraq and Turkey”.

Issuing a press meeting at Zardak Mountain in Northern Iraq, in response to a question “Has a political agreement been reached for post-ISIS period”, Barzani responded “We wanted to have such a political plan but the other side said that first an operation needs to be launched. If problems arise in the upcoming period, we would like to solve these with the other side.

“At the moment, there is a high-ranking political committee, and we will do our best to prevent Mosul from becoming another Aleppo”.

“There must be consensus”

Barzani briefly said:

“No vengeful acts will be permitted in Mosul.

“We are of the opinion that there must be an agreement, a consensus between Baghdad and Ankara”.

"There won’t be a demographic change”

“It won’t be a short operation, it will take time and by defeating ISIS, and we are confident that we will, we want to sustain this coordination in the upcoming period. There won’t be a demographic change.

“As part of the Mosul operation, roles of Peshmerga and Iraqi army have been separated”.

“The operation will continue”

“It is hard to have any estimation by now of when the operation will end, however, no matter how long it takes we are determined to continue the operation.

“The operation today succeeded because it was prepared in coordination by Iraqi forces and Peshmerga.

“An area of 200 kilometer square has been cleansed of ISIS. We will not allow Mosul to turn into Aleppo”.

“People will return to their regions”

“Holes were dug to protect Peshmerga against ISIS.

“As for the villages seized…These villages have been rescued and residents of these places will return to their own regions.

“We believe that we can find solutions to every problem in cooperation by continuing the coordination in the upcoming period”. (YY/TK)