US withdrawal will create a security vacuum – Yawar

ARBIL / IraqiNews.com: A Peshmerga spokesman said today that the U.S. withdrawal will create a security vacuum in the disputed areas between Baghdad and Arbil.  Jabbar Yawar told IraqiNews.com that the vacuum will be in areas like Diala, Mosul, Tikrit and Kirkuk.  “Article 140 of the constitution has not been implemented up until now to determine the destiny of these areas,” he added.   “There is a U.S. division of 15,000 soldiers that helps the Iraqi and Region’s forces to preserve security and collaborate in joint security check-points,” he added.  “There is work to make the three-party joint forces (U.S., Iraqi and Peshmerga) into two-party work (Iraqi and Peshmerga) in the common check points”, he elaborated.  The United Nations called for more dialogues and to encourage reaching compromises on disputed areas to contribute in establishing a state of stability in the country.  According to Article 140 of the constitution, the disputed areas between Baghdad and Arbil should be implemented in three stages: normalization, population census and referendum to determine its destiny, but all these steps were delayed.  It was decided that the U.S. forces will be drawn from Iraq by the end of this year, according to the security agreement signed between the two countries, which lead to arising fears in Iraq that there will be a security deterioration due to the non-preparedness of the Iraqi forces, in addition to Kurdish fears on the disputed areas between Baghdad and Arbil, mostly in Kirkuk and adjacent areas of Mosul. RM (TI)/SR 593