The governor of Kirkuk who was removed, Najmaddin Karim, is a Bafel Talabani rival in the PUK. In an interview with Bloomberg commenting on the recent events of Kirkuk, Karim said, "The day before the attack, Bafel, Talabani's nephew Lahur and his older brother Araz came to Kirkuk and met with [Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander] Qasem Soleimani's representative there.
He gave an ultimatum, 'You either give up your positions or we will attack you.’" Thus, by weakening the position of the KDP in Kirkuk and removing Karim, who is accused by some PUK members of being pro-KDP, Bafel Talabani and his cousins may have achieved their goals and lost interest in dissolving the council. As for the Arabs, they seem comfortable to maintain the current status quo, as the Arab who was Kirkuk's deputy governor, Rakan Saeed al-Jobouri, now acts as the province's governor.
There also are legal problems to deal with. According to Rebwar Talabani, head of the Kirkuk provincial council, "There is no legal or constitutional article that allows dissolving the provincial council because the council operates under Bremer's Law 71, which is the highest authority." Thus, due to both political and legal obstructions, Prime Minister Abadi may avoid resorting to this option too.
To conclude, the current situation presents both risk and opportunity for Abadi. The risk is taking further escalatory actions and the opportunity is to put an end to the policy of imposing a fait accompli in Kirkuk and instead try to find a solution with regard to the future of the province under Article 140 of the constitution.
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