CAIRO, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry called for a peaceful settlement in the disputed Iraqi city of Kirkuk on Wednesday, state-run MENA news agency reported.
Shoukry said, during a phone with his Iraqi counterpart Ibrahim al-Jaafari, that Cairo is following up the ongoing incidents in Iraq and stands by the whole Iraqi people.
He said that Egypt hopes the crisis of Kirkuk will be peacefully settled.
During the call, al-Jaafari thanked Shoukry over Egypt's interest in following up the current developments in Iraq and its keenness on Iraq's unity and stability.
He further said the Iraqi army avoids exposing to danger the lives of Iraqi people during the operation of retaking the oil-rich city.
On Monday, Shoukry urged in a statement the Iraqi government and the Iraqi Kurdish Regional Government to exercise self-restraint and not to further escalate tensions.
Disagreements between Baghdad and the Kurdish regional government have been running high for years. The ethnic Kurds consider the northern Kirkuk province and parts of Nineveh, Diyala and Salahudin provinces as disputed areas and want them to be incorporated into their region, a move fiercely opposed by the Arabs and the central government in Baghdad.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, also the commander-in-chief of Iraqi forces on Monday ordered government forces to enter the oil-rich Kirkuk province to regain control of the ethnically-mixed disputed areas.
Iraqi security forces then fully recaptured the city and took control of the government building after the Kurdish forces withdrew from the city.
