The veteran Kurdish leader told a parliamentary sitting in Erbil on Sunday that he would not re-contest the presidency and asked for his powers to be dispersed. After the poll, Iraqi Kurdistan lost oil-rich Kirkuk to military forces sent by Baghdad, which had been angered by the referendum’s inclusion of the contested city and other disputed territories. Military units and allied militias quickly seized oilfields and other strategic sites, turning off overnight more than half the Kurdish region’s revenues and leaving it with little hand to play in negotiations. The Iraqi military and Shia-led units have continued to stalk two border crossings that account for almost all of the region’s revenues. “Suleimani wants to turn Masoud back into the leader of the clan for defying him,” one regional official said.

Source: The Guardian October 29, 2017 14:59 UTC