Iraq is considering building a new Kirkuk–Ceyhan pipeline through Arbil and Dahuk governorates to bypass attack-prone areas.
In 2010 he joined Iraqi Super league rivels Arbil FC along with club teammate Mustafa Ahmad
This resulted in the establishment of two Kurdistan Regional Governments in 1996, a KDP-controlled one in Arbil and a PUK-controlled one in as-Sulaymaniyah, each with their own Prime Minister.
As of October 2008, thirteen provinces had successfully completed transition to provincial Iraqi control: al Muthanna, Dhi Qar, Najaf, Maysan, Dahuk, Arbil, Sulaymaniyah, Karbala, Basra, Al-Qadisiyah, Al-Anbar, Babil and Wasit.
To date, seven editions of his poetry have been published: in Baghdad in 1935 and 1946, in Iran, in Sweden in 1996, in As Sulaymaniyah in 1999 and, most recently, in Arbil in 2000.
This led to three non-related bishops of Shimun VII (the bishops of Arbil, Urmia and Salmas) to call an assembly in Mosul of clergy, monks, and members from ten regions, to elect the hesitant Yohannan Sulaqa as the new patriarch.
According to Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, the detained Iranians had been working in Arbil with official sanction, and the liaison office was in the process of becoming a full consulate; however the office was yet to be classified as a consulate with diplomatic protection.