NIQASH: Can you update us on the situation faced by internally displaced people of Ninawa? And could you enlighten us about recent rumours that said that the distribution of aid to them was being badly affected by corruption?
Al-Nujaifi: Around 1 million people from the Ninawa province have been displaced. Most of them are in the provinces of Dohuk or Erbil [in Iraqi Kurdistan] or in Kirkuk and a few are in other provinces. As a provincial government Ninawa has not had much to do with caring for these people.
The Iraqi government decided to give this job to the provinces that are hosting the displaced, not the provinces they left. We asked that this might be changed in 2015 and apparently it will be.
NIQASH: After the IS group is pushed out of Ninawa what would you like to see happening?
Al-Nujaifi: The political situation is going to depend very much on how Ninawa is liberated from the IS group, who frees the province and how the liberating force treats the people of Ninawa after the IS group is gone. It's clear that it's going to depend very much on the opinions of the people of Ninawa themselves.
NIQASH: Military from Iraqi Kurdistan have taken control of parts of Ninawa that were previously part of the “disputed areas” - that is, areas that Iraqi Kurdistan says belong to their semi-autonomous region but which Baghdad says belongs to Iraq proper. What do you think will happen to these areas after the IS group has been expelled: Do you think there's going to be more conflict about these disputed areas between those in Ninawa and their Iraqi Kurdish neighbours?
Al-Nujaifi: There is a new, better kind of relationship between the people of Ninawa and the people of Iraqi Kurdistan – because of the aid provided to those from Ninawa by Iraqi Kurdistan and the cooperation. The people of Ninawa can say that they trust their Kurdish brothers and the Kurdish leaders more now.
That's why I am ruling out the possibility of any real conflict or crisis between Ninawa and Iraqi Kurdistan. If problems were to arise, they could be easily solved with dialogue because there's more trust between the two parties now.
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