‘We are working on implementing the [Shingal] agreement’: Iraq national security advisor

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Iraq’s national security advisor visited Shingal (Sinjar in Arabic) on Monday to discuss the recent developments in a deal struck between Erbil and Baghdad on security and administration in the disputed district.

Former Iraqi Interior Minister and current National Security Advisor Qasim al-Araji visited the area on Monday a day after residents of the Yezidi homeland took to the streets calling for the deal to be put into action.

“We are working on implementing the agreement, in addition to forming a local police force in the city, the federal forces will take care of the process,” he told Rudaw’s Tahsin Qasim.

“In the upcoming days, we will take steps toward returning Yezidi IDPs to their homes in collaboration with the Kurdistan Regional Government,” he added.

The Iraqi government and Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) signed a "historic" agreement on October 9 to resolve a number of issues preventing displaced Shingalis from returning to the area.  

Al- Araji’s visit came in response to a demonstration of hundreds of residents on Sunday, calling on the two governments to implement the agreement on the security and governance of the area so that thousands of displaced Yezidis can return to their homeland.

“We will not accept for them to deny us our rights, we have given too many lives,” said the head of the Khanasor Council, Dakheel Murad during the demonstration.

“Shingal has been through so much suffering and adversity, we want peace and security to be enforced,” said Khalaf Hadi, mayor of Kolka village in Shingal district, Nineveh province.

Protests against the deal have also taken place, with demonstrators saying it acted against the will of Shingal's locals who were not consulted. 

Under the Erbil-Baghdad agreement, security for the troubled region will be Baghdad's responsibility. The federal government will have to establish a new armed force recruited from the local population and expel fighters from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and their affiliated groups, according to details released last month. 

The PKK participated in the defeat of the Islamic State (ISIS) in the Yezidi homeland of Shingal and supports the all-Yezidi YBS, - one of some six armed groups currently operating in the area. 

A top analyst at the International Crisis Group (ICG) has advised against the exclusion of the armed groups from decisions about the area's future.

"There are some tensions around this as it will create a new force and this could potentially be a competition with the others. So it will be very important for the implementation of this agreement to ensure that various factions are either integrated into this force or there are other alternatives to them," the ICG's senior Iraq analyst Lahib Higel told Rudaw in October.