Today is sunday so they will meet again, this time in Erbil. What do you think? Will they sign and actually do as agreed?
Interesting that Mailiki isnt mentioned, is he not present on theese meetings?
Erbil and Baghdad Reach Tentative Agreement on Troops Dispute
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Erbil and Baghdad have reached a tentative agreement to resolve a tense dispute over troop deployments in Iraq’s northern disputed territories, Iraq’s acting defense minister said on Wednesday.
“Erbil and Baghdad have agreed to solve all their disputes,” Sadoon al-Dulaimi said at a news conference. He said that both sides have submitted a roadmap to a joint committee for final approval, and that a delegation from Baghdad would travel to Erbil on Sunday to sign the final deal.
Al-Dulaimi’s announcement followed the arrival in Baghdad of a high-level delegation from the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), which included the Peshmarga minister Sheikh Jaafar Mustafa.
Erbil and Baghdad have been locked in a tense stand-off since November, after Iraq’s Arab Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki deployed his controversial Dijla forces in the disputed territories that are claimed by both sides, and the KRG countered by sending in thousands of its own Peshmarga troops. Both sides have warned of a possible Kurdish-Arab war ever since.
“The visit of the Kurdish delegation was at the formal invitation of the Iraqi government,” Halgurd Hikmat, spokesman of the Peshmarga ministry, told Rudaw.
He said that the Kurdish delegation met with al-Dulaimi, Iraq’s commander of infantry troops Ali Ghaidan and commander of border forces Muhsin Abdulhussein.
Jabar Yawar, chief of staff of the Peshmarga ministry and part of the Kurdish delegation in Baghdad, released a statement on his Facebook page on Wednesday about the talks, saying, “Both sides agreed to work jointly together until Article 140 has been fully implemented.”
“The Kurdish delegation presented a detailed roadmap to this end that outlines a solution for the disputed territories and it obliges the central government to respect its clauses to the full,” Yawar wrote.
Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution outlines steps that would ultimately determine whether a local administration or Baghdad governs vast tracts of land in areas of Kirkuk, Nineveh and Diyala that are claimed by both the Arabs and Kurds.
News of an agreement between Erbil and Baghdad came just a day after KRG President Massoud Barzani told reporters in Sulaimani that he was not hopeful about the talks.
“I am not optimistic about solving the disputes between Erbil and Baghdad,” Barzani said on Tuesday. “And the withdrawal of the Peshmarga forces is directly related to the withdrawal of Iraqi troops from those areas,” he said.
Separately, Barzani said following a meeting with US Ambassador to Iraq Robert S. Beecroft on Wednesday that, “The doors of negotiation are open to solve all the problems between Erbil and Baghdad.” He added that he hoped the Iraqi government would respect Article 140.
According to Barzani’s website, the US ambassador expressed his country’s concern about the tense situation in the disputed territories, and expressed hope that “Iraq’s political sides come to a common view to end the tensions.”
In a separate meeting with the US ambassador, KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani stressed his government’s commitment to peace talks with Baghdad.
“The Kurdistan Region is committed to solving our problems through a constitutional mechanism,” he said. “Sending our delegation to Baghdad proves our belief in dialogue.”
http://www.rudaw.net/english/kurds/5595.html