Nineveh party rejects division plan: Province will remain united
Shafaq News – Nineveh
Any move to divide Nineveh would endanger Iraq’s unity and risk reigniting internal conflict, the Civilians (Madaniyoun) Party said on Sunday, rejecting renewed proposals to partition the province.
Party official Osama al-Khattat told Shafaq News that all “political, tribal, and religious forces” must close ranks to defend Nineveh’s integrity, warning that such calls “would ignite new strife and serve only Iraq’s enemies.”
“Nineveh will remain united and stable within Iraq,” he added.
The statement follows renewed debate over the province’s status after the Badr Parliamentary Bloc, led by Hadi al-Amiri, proposed – months earlier – establishing a new province combining Tal Afar, Sinjar, and parts of the Nineveh Plain to “protect minorities from marginalization.”
Earlier attempts to create separate provinces in 2013 collapsed when then-governor Atheel al-Nujaifi threatened to declare Nineveh an autonomous region, and in 2016 again when the Council of Representatives moved to “close the door to any possibility of changing the legal status of Nineveh."
The discussion resurfaced, however, after Baghdad recognized Halabja as Iraq’s nineteenth province, spurring similar demands for administrative change.
Under Article 140 of Iraq’s Constitution, disputed territories such as Sinjar and the Nineveh Plain were meant to undergo normalization, a census, and a referendum to determine their future — a process stalled for more than a decade.
Home to 3.7 million people, Nineveh mirrors Iraq’s ethnic and religious diversity — Arabs, Kurds, Turkmen, Yazidis, and Christians — many still rebuilding from ISIS’s 2014–2017 occupation. Control of key districts continues to shift among federal troops, Kurdish Peshmerga, and paramilitary factions.
