Accelerated since President Trump came to office. Those are the latest headlines coming up next inside story. The Iraqi Government to seize control of the disputed all rich city of kut cook and Kurdish Forces have retreated from all the major contested areas in the north so how will this affect the kurds push to secede from baghdad this is inside story. Hello again im james pais its a battle full power. And oil and baghdad so that sent its strongest message so far so the kurdish leadership taking just a day to take charge of cook and the all fields around the city last month voters in iraqs kurdish region as well as some disputed areas overwhelmingly opted to secede but baghdad as well as neighbors iran and turkey have fiercely opposed the move well get to our panel of just guests to discuss a less but first this report from charles stratford. The kurdish flag no longer flies in the center of kirkuk. The city now officially back in the hands of the Iraqi Government its forces but made a rapid advance mulched in the middle of the night fifteen hours later the Industrial Area airports military base and critical fields were under the control of iraqi forces soon after they marched into the center of the city. Iraqi officials were quick to declare victory but. The joint military operation was launched at dawn in progress significantly as the troops approached the area to crete and the north oil company were confronted by some rebels who tried to hinder the progress of the advancing units turned five in silence to. Thank god today we have achieved all our goals according to our plan the u. S. Military which a trained both sides in this dispute trying to downplay the escalation in a statement blaming the firefight on the darkness calling it a misunderstanding. But kurdish fighters painted a different picture of what was happening on the ground at. The moment i dont know what is happening exactly because we have been in the fight since four in the morning in the areas of tasa we have suffered casualties including martyrs and now we have withdrawn into this position and some of the other forces have pulled out they didnt fire a single shot and thats ok but when the seventh brigade holding up position here thousands fled the city as the forces approached mixed in among them kurdish fighters now as the u. S. Urges dialogue and calm the question is whats next will iraqi forces and their militias pursue the Kurdish People and fighters that answer will have an impact here and around the globe oil prices are climbing with the news the possibility. Of a civil war perhaps in iraq with Kurdish Forces fighting both iraqi army and possibly iranian militias. Did not play well with the with the well so traders and so. The perception is that prices will rise until thats what we meant risk is completely character i shall we say understood most world powers would rule the Kurdish Regional government and not to go ahead with a nonbinding referendum where the majority of people voted for secession from iraq now the people of this region and their government are finding out there is a very real price to be paid in this search for independence the speed with which the iraqi army were able to achieve their aim is left the Kurdish Regional government shocked and wanting arent cers and already there are questions being asked as to whether certain members of one of the main two kurdish Political Parties may have colluded with the Iraqi Military in order to ensure such a swift and easy victory in and around kirkuk toss Strafford Al Jazeera the bill. So why is kirk cook so important to both Iraqi Government and the kurdish leadership the Kurdish People in iraq have autonomy in this area in the north of the country kook though lies outside that region but it has a large kurdish population and they consider it the center of their historical homeland but cooke is part of a large stretch of territory that baghdad also claims kerr cook is home to significant numbers of arabs took men and christians the issue is further complicated by other groups for example shia militias along with iraqi forces have in recent hours taken over the city of sin jar as well as the disputed towns of Michael Moore chua and bash the car and the conflict has garnered attention from iraqs neighbors turkey iran and syria because they too have kurdish dominated regions shaded here. Well lets bring in our guest to discuss all of this and in baghdad we have more by hes former Iraqi National security advisor whos now a member of parliament for baghdad in erbil caution our kurdish political analyst and professor at the beit institute and in london. A research or at the university of exeter strategy and Security Institute welcome to you all like to start with you in baghdad mr by your former National Security adviser so you have extremely good sources id like your perspective right now of the situation on the ground where to broadcast it is. About zanny. So at the consulate represented there in baghdad and the other government has authorized the Prime Minister and commander in chief. And there to regain control of all territories which were taken by it in the suburbs and the illegally. On top of the constitutional referendum it has declared so the only iraqis behind the government and behind the Popular Mobilization forces and behind the Iraqi Security forces to take over the control of gook and the what they call dispute it did turn its roots and can you just tell us is can you just tell us mr all right rabbi can you tell us what the situation is now with regard to the city of kirkuk and the other areas are we basically known nearly back to where we were in twenty fourteen i think. You can you have to come to see the rejoin us and the happiness of people in good air all over the city this is a unique city at their dock with its kurds there is up with another command and the third of the arabs and ten percent are christians so this is it and man this is like a unique city and mr baez any i dont want you to basically raid this it this city and imposed on a kurd this year you are not what i think there might be some who contest your figures because of course there hasnt been a proper census there mr caution now in erbil can i start by asking you what is the feeling whats the atmosphere there like now actually the situation is under control everything is fine. Actually. Could this leaders. Decide to not fighting with our brothers. Our brothers brothers with the iraqi army because we fight side by side. And especially the very brave and they fight on behalf of the free war they defeat isis and now they dont want to do to fight. Brothers in iraqi army but if we go back to the history why you we did they refund them the reason is that the main reason is the Iraqi Government in baghdad they didnt. Implement the constitution they killed the budget the seventy percent of. It and also they didnt give. The Kurdish People decided to vote for to vote majority of could just people ninety two percent of the Kurdish People decided to to decide for refund them and say yes we dont want to be with iraq anymore so this situation is now. We dont want we could this people is this full of these people want dialogue we dont want to fight our brothers we dont want internal war we dont want to be like. To make it. In our side and in the iraqi army site so the situation is now is complex but i am optimistic that they. Will be between the iraqi. Leaders and with the could this lead there soon. Everything will be fine but finally we want to implement the constitutional if you rock but all of the reasons all. All the conflicts is happened because the iraqi the Central Government of iraq failed to implement the constitution of iraq since two thousand and three ok thousand will come to well it will become it will come will come to talk it will come to will come to talked about that as we go through the program but it does seem the tone has changed bill just for me to follow up to you because the push military council when the units first moved from baghdad and started this operation said it was a flagrant declaration of war against the nation of kurdistan and yet now youve just given up your positions as i told you we have right to to refund them we. Mentioned in the United Nations charter so we didnt make a mistake im not asking im not asking you about the referendum or im not asking about the referendum im just asking the tone seems to change the language seems to change from bill one point you sounded like you were going to defend these positions and now it sounds from kurdish leaders and we tried to get kurdish leaders on this program and some difficulty getting any it would appear they seem to have gone quite quiet and you seem to have now decided to give up the disputed ground is that right no thats not right actually we didnt change we we fight for our rights but we want to have to do to have our rights by by dialogue by negotiation not by fight we dont want to fight we we fight at isis we defeat isis on behalf of the free world but we dont want to fight our brothers and sisters in the house they should be or the iraqi army we want to have over we do want to bring go right to to take our rights by peacefully by dialogue and by negotiation ok mr abdul razak in law. Get your perspective on this give us some idea of whats going on from your view within the Kurdish Community because there seems to be a bit of a disagreement and a disagreement potentially between the two main kurdish parties on how to move forward i think first of all what we have here is a classic case of mischaracterization for political purposes in the sense that on the one hand you have. The gentleman from baghdad saying that the everyone is behind that the shabby the Popular Organization forces and iraqi army and everyone kind of jubilant. Over a thousand families fled the city so im sure theyre not jubilant and on the other hand you have the argument from to be saying that everything is under control and we do not want to fight but as you rightly stated just a day or two ago they were issuing statements which we could only be characterized as fighting talk the reason why thats broken down is because frankly i mean on sunday as has been reported. The Iranian Islamic Revolutionary guard corps force commander got some sunni money was actually in surname one year which is the stronghold of the p u k and he was still unclear as to what he said to them but what is very apparent is following that meeting the p. K. Started to withdraw from its positions south of cork now these are p. U. Fighters the peshmerga itself is of the divided between the k. T. People try to go on the p. K. Push my guess is not actually united force and these the the factual sneak nature of the peshmerga has been laid to bands weaknesses have been shown so its all well and good saying that the want to force on behalf of the free world but we have to look at the internal fissures that led to this if the p u k withdrew from its positions and that the k d p holding the bag then that is the reason why they are no longer willing to fight its not because they are trying to negotiate but you know at the end of day what happened to fighting to the last man that all kind of dissipated mr are ruled by we heard the mention of carson some of my who is the head of the codes force who is actually directed this operation is it directed by your government there in baghdad or was it really being directed from iran. And its use and. And authorized and the leadership and the command of the Prime Minister and the commander in chief ok to clear them is just a sort of money currently in iraq is he involved in this operation mentioning mentioning the name last im still a man as that people trying to distract the mean issue the main issue which has created this problem as mr burns ration of the afghan down and and mr burns than its time to create the new realities on the ground new de facto by controlling and the much while back and by. The disputed territories. And this is what the the Iraqi Security forces the Popular Mobilization forces the fort pitt federal police and the or even the even the peshmerga from the pew case are. Getting together to the deserts this trying to mr baez and his ambition which and illegal and unconstitutional and mission what brought us to here is the is the it is mr bowers and mr burns and it is squarely responsible for what is happening now and why and we are we are fighting terrorism for the last three and a half years and we are nearly there were still were still fighting with our Counterterrorism Forces are still busy in and the western provinces in but and the up are you afraid this valley. When our. Iraqi Security Forces are busy trying to fight and finish that unfortunately mr baez and he was trying to create and control a New Territories and they and the good and the and so ideal and the and and then our this is not acceptable thats why all iraqis are united behind their Iraqi Security forces jule to try to regain the control and i can tell you theres nothing would stop the Iraqi Security forces supported by the bit Popular Mobilization forces. To go out and control or the territories all over the country because the government needs to impose and implement their sovereignty and their rule of law on all territories in iraq my own shit mentioning the forests and the cousins you know money this is all trying to destruction our tactics is trying to act is to try to distract the. Dacian are the problem when is the problem as it has it has hasnt been the manic this problem armistead about and this yes put yes but you know mr by the context of this you know that he is part of a force thats just had fresh sanctions on it put by the trumpet ministration so yes i appreciate your talking about events on the ground but there is a wider context to this which could be a problem for your government Going Forward in its relations with the trumpet ministration. Well thats why that was we can stand. Behind united. Prosperous and secure iraq thats their. Intention and that. Is issue and thats what we have with well thats what were dealing with you know about and we have that as the experiment agreement with the United States and it would state very clearly we signed this and then got two thousand and eight. Then it clearly is that big United States of america is behind united fans and thats why they are that they are supporting the federal government Illegal Immigrants who are on the disputed territories and even some of the more you say they are supporting you that question was directly aust at the white house at a News Conference in the last twenty four hours to President Trump this was his response you dont like the fact that theyre clashing were not taking sides but we dont like the fact that theyre clashing we were i mean you know weve had for many years very Good Relationship with the kurds as you know and weve also been on the side of iraq even though we should have never been in the first place we should never have been there but were not taking sides in that battle mr abdul razak in london there you have it the president saying hes not taking sides and here you have a situation where both sides there are forces that have been armed and trained by the u. S. Why i think whats clear from the u. S. Is position is that. Following oversee the referendum result after the twenty fifth of september. Theyve made several efforts there the United States that is the British Government and other major powers they try to curtail and to prevent the independence referendum they try to convince mr bott is only to stop the referendum and to even you know roll it back a little bit but he refused i think what happened there was that mr baez only underestimated the Regional Response and that includes a u. S. And nato ally turkey whereby the turks have had a long excellent relationship frankly with mr bott as any and they have developed economic ties. To the extent where the kurdistan region is probably the i think their Third Largest export market so he was banking on turkish support and who obviously theyre the ones who have been exporting oil that was being handled by the chaos through port and they were selling oil through to the rest of the world. As a result of that and and mr bott is only underestimating turkish resolve what happened is that the entire region coalesced against him so you had the iranians the iraqis and the turks all agreeing on the same thing which rarely happens throughout the region especially those three countries i mean obviously your rock has a lot of strong known ties to iran but turkey has been at loggerheads with iraq over there but you have a base for example and you know the populations in the telephone and other areas so to have them all sit at a table near green that you know we have to stop any move towards kurdish independence is quite significance and obviously this is related to kurdish populations in iran kurdish populations in turkey and also in syria and each of these countries are afraid that the kurds may then call for greater autonomy within those countries. Mr bott is only massively underestimated that and has led to the situation today however it is wrong to say that you know this is just a distraction by bringing a gun in by some sort of money you are quite correct in saying that the future of the Iraqi Government and its relations with the United States is at risk with the involvement of us and so money and the g. C. For instance the interior ministry of iraq and the federal police are almost entirely starved by the by that organization which is a shia Jihadist Group linked to the i r g c. This is a major policy concerns about that he says should be but it also demonstrates how u. S. Influence is stripping if theyre still willing to filter weapons u. S. Made weapons to these groups to use in the internal disputes mr kushner bill youve heard both of our other guests say that the kurdish leader mr bizarre knee has made major strategic mistakes do you agree perhaps the timing of the referendum was wrong do you agree perhaps he shouldnt have included cool can disputed areas in the referendum no im not agree with because theres have right to the two vote. If we go back to the United Nations the charter charters over the United Nations its a freedom of speech freedom of to vote your vicinity to to have your Self Determination its. Our right but we say that just that your rocky government in baghdad is the result why we well you we all that all did the referendum and actually bravely defended. In care killed and in the in the name in the mosul area while the iraqi army leave the people to the to slaughter who were. Under the hands of the isis to be a slave and the peshmerga defended. Bravely. That the people are actually now we are the people we want to have our rights peacefully as ive mentioned before and. What the court this leader decides to all the way from them is because the iraqi the Central Government in iraq. Didnt implement when we give them the chance when when they have time from two thousand and three. Until two thousand and fourteen they didnt implement the. The the constitution of iraq and also they. Government didnt build the federal democratic government and also its not they could be suffering now its also sunni people suffering under the. Government in baghdad and also there is a control of the army on the part of the army. As my friend in london mentioned by cousin sulaimani and by that iran so the Iraqi Government now its. In the hands of some people that they want to reelect in two thousand and eighteen we have to leave it there thank you to our guests. By caution now and. If you want to know more about this subject go to the place where you can always watch the program again and find out more thats on our website aljazeera dot com if you want to air your views or tell us what we should talk about next time around were on facebook find us at facebook dot com forward slash a. J. Inside story or you can use twitter our handle is a. J. Inside story ill be back in this chair soon in fact just under twenty four hours from now on the whole team here bye for now. To navigating dangerous rapids from the time with the car to the time we finished it was scary to the fisherman dicing with death. Im afraid of falling im afraid of dying but if i dont go for a coffee my family needs the man who go to the extreme just to make a living. You have to be a school nurse with an otherwise good faith and risking it all vietnam at this time on aljazeera. Is quiet the signal is given. Out it so its safe to walk to school last year there are more than thirty metres in this community in one month the police say this area is a red zone one of several in some townships in quetta children sometimes a court in the crossfire when rival gangs fight the parents and grandparents have started what they call a walking us to try to take the violence i lost my family looking a little go i also lost my but there are more than one hundred fifty volunteers working for several walking busses teachers say it is working class attendance has improved the volunteers also act as security guards she was a Society Hostess in beirut in the 1940s she was in touch with a lot of people from the lebanese the rick was going to make this work her code name was the power and she spied for mossad in lebanon before. What she was doing it was such a brave as a woman aljazeera world douses story of shown to go in. The beirut spy at this time. Hello again im Martin Dennis in doha and these are the top stories u. S. Backed Opposition Forces have driven eisel from rocka its self declared capital in Syria KurdishLed Syrian Democratic forces raise their flag in the citys stadium after a four month battle from taiwan the turkey syria border hashim a hobart