Erbil and Baghdad agreed on managing security, customs at airports

Iraqi high security sources told NRT that a high-level federal security delegation visited Erbil and Sulaimaniyah International Airports last week.
The sources added the Iraqi delegation met with Kurdish officials during its visit to the region, agreeing on points to lift a ban imposed on the airports in the Kurdistan Region since late September.
“The delegation from Baghdad met with the first person of the Kurdistan Region’s intelligence service,” the sources said.
Both sides agreed all the security measures be alike in all the airports in Iraq including Erbil and Sulaimaniyah International Airports, the sources revealed.
They also agreed to create a joint committee to mutually manage the cases of security, intelligence and customs at the region’s airports, according to the sources.
Baghdad severed Kurdistan Region’s air links to the outside world in late September after the Region voted overwhelmingly for independence in a non-binding referendum rejected as illegal by the central government.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Tuesday that the ban on the international flights to and from the Kurdistan Region's airports would be lifted “in a near future.”
The federal government seeks to reassert “full control” in the airports, he added.
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