Iraq PM rejects Kurdish claims in disputed areas

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Wednesday rejected the claims by the semi- autonomous Kurdish region to control the disputed areas, which are now in the hands of the Kurdish security forces.
"No one has the right to exploit the events that occurred to impose a fait accompli, like what happened in some of the actions of the Kurdistan region. This is a rejected act," Maliki said in his televised weekly speech.
Maliki's comments came as an answer to Kurdish regional leader Massud Barzani's comments that the Kurds do not need the Iraqi constitution to resolve the problem over disputed areas, as the Peshmerga (Kurdish security forces) have now controlled the disputed city of Kirkuk, the last part of the disputed areas described in the constitution.
"The Kurds have been waiting for ten years to fulfill the article 140 but it was no use, now the article 140 is achieved and it is over, and we won't talk about it anymore," Barzani said.
The disputed areas are mainly ethnically mixed with the Kurds, Arabs and Turkmans and other minorities. The Kurds demanded to expand their autonomous region in northern Iraq to include the oil- rich province of Kirkuk and other areas in the Iraqi provinces of Nineveh, Salahudin and Diyala.
Maliki also rejected the latest press releases by Barzani about a referendum to establish a Kurdish state.
On June 23, Barzani told CNN in an interview that "the time is here for the Kurdistan people to determine their future and the decision of the people is what we are going to uphold."
Iraq has been witnessing its worst security conditions that began about three weeks ago when armed Sunni insurgents, spearheaded by an al-Qaida splinter group Islamic State of Iraq and Levant, launched a surprise offensive that led to the debacle of Iraqi security forces, and the fallen of a large part of the country's northern and western territories.