Iraqi Kurds end parliament boycott in concession to Baghdad

Nechirvan Barzani, prime minister of Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), speaks during a press conference in the northern Iraqi city of Arbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdistan region, on November 6, 2017. (AFP / SAFIN HAMED)

IRBIL, Iraq: Kurdish lawmakers have ended their boycott of the national parliament in an apparent concession to Baghdad after a prolonged military and political standoff following the controversial Kurdish independence vote in September.
Members of parliament from the Kurdish party that spearheaded the referendum campaign returned to Baghdad on Thursday.
They had boycotted the parliament since it voted to declare the Kurdish independence referendum unconstitutional.
The end of the boycott comes on the heels of a decision from the Kurdish regional government this week to accept an earlier federal court ruling that Iraq must remain unified.
Iraqi forces led by Baghdad and the Kurdish peshmerga fighters have engaged in a military standoff since Baghdad retook the oil-rich city of Kirkuk and several other disputed territories from peshmerga’s control last month.