Shafaq News- Al-Sulaymaniyah

Iraq's Law No. 3 of 2025 could resolve a large part of the long-running disputes over agricultural land in the country's disputed areas, a senior Kurdish official told Shafaq News on Saturday, but said gaps in its implementation continue to prevent progress.

Fahmi Barhan, head of the General Authority for the Kurdish Areas outside the Administration of the Kurdistan Region, described farmers' land claims as part of a broader dispute over areas including Kirkuk, Khanaqin and Sinjar, whose status remains tied to Article 140* of the Iraqi Constitution.

Law No. 3 of 2025 repealed a series of decisions issued by the now-dissolved Revolutionary Command Council concerning agricultural land and provides mechanisms for returning affected properties to their owners.

In March 2025, Iraq's Justice Ministry said it had formed a committee to follow up on the law and that implementation instructions were required. Barhan said the necessary framework has still not been completed sufficiently to resolve the outstanding land disputes.

“The absence of a clear government position on Article 140 remains the main obstacle to resolving the broader dispute,” Barhan said.

On unifying the Peshmerga forces, Barhan said bringing them under a unified structure could also pave the way for Baghdad and Erbil to jointly administer the disputed areas at the security and administrative levels.

*Article 140 of Iraq's Constitution established a process for resolving the status of Kirkuk and other disputed territories through normalization, a census and a referendum. The constitutional deadline for completing the process was the end of 2007, but it remains unresolved.

Read more: Khanaqin tensions: Why is Iraq’s Article 140 back in focus?