ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—A high-profile delegation from the Shiite National Alliance headed by Ammar al-Hakim is due to arrive in the Kurdistan Region on Saturday where they are scheduled to meet with Kurdish President Masoud Barzani and party leaders on their Iraqi national reconciliation initiative and the future of Mosul.
The Kurdish president’s chief of staff Fuad Hussein told Rudaw that the agenda of the meeting is open, but pointed out that the Shiite delegation will be discussing the war against ISIS in Mosul, and the future of Kurdistan with Baghdad.
It is expected that al-Hakim will discuss their plan for national reconciliation in Iraq termed as National Settlement aimed at the restructuring of Iraq after the defeat of ISIS.
The National Alliance leader al-Hakim stated in late December that his group’s initiative also includes the Kurdistan Region.
Al-Hakim has been working on the project for more than a year and he has met with Iraqi parties and sought the support of such neighboring and regional countries as Iran and Jordan as well the Arab league.
The initiative’s core principle is to build future relations between Iraq’s different religious and ethnic communities and political parties.
“The objective behind this initiative is to preserve Iraq and strengthening it as an independent state as a sovereign, united, federal, and democratic country,” a document from the alliance reads.
The Kurdistan Region has long sought independence from Iraq and its president and prime minister say they have made their intentions clear to Baghdad.
However, al-Hakim's document says that Iraqis, including the Kurds, should not “divide” Iraq under any circumstances.
“Faith and commitment in word and deed of the unity of Iraq's land and people and preserve the sovereignty and independence of the decision and its identity and its parliamentary democratic system and reject dividing it under any circumstance,” the document reads.
The document says that the United Nation’s mission in Iraq UNAMI will take upon itself to draft the final version of the initiative.
The draft will then “be ratified in the Council of Representatives and the government after the blessing of the religious authorities, and the support and assurance from the regional and international organizations and institutions, foremost the Arab League, the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation.”
It goes on to say that “the United Nations’ mission in Iraq will work to rally enough support from the neighboring countries to make the agreed national settlement project succeed.”
Among other important principles the document calls for are:
· Real commitment to a fair distribution of wealth based on provincial populations.
· Rejecting all kinds of demographic change practiced by Saddam’s Baathist regime, and addressing all the effects of the demographic change, past and later.
· The rule of law, keeping arms in the hands of the state, and not to allow armed groups and militias outside the law.
· Working hard to free the state and its institutions from the discriminatory sectarian and ethnic quota system.
