"Iraqi Kurd Leader Spells Out Terms for Deal"

[TexasLawyer]

From Arab News, Saudi Arabia. Barzani wants such a little thing-- just Kirkuk!!! Is that so much to ask? (or, rather, to demand).

&category=World

Iraqi Kurd Leader Spells Out Terms for Deal
Seb Walker, Reuters

ARBIL, Iraq, 25 February 2005 — Iraqi Kurds will only agree to a deal on the formation of a new national government if they are given control of disputed areas in the north of the country, according to a senior Kurdish leader. Those areas include oil-rich Kirkuk, the most ethnically diverse and hotly contested city in the country, said Nechirvan Barzani, prime minister of the Kurdish Regional Government.

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Thousands of Iraqi Kurds were pushed out of their homes by Saddam Hussein as part of his “Arabization” program, when he sought to move Arabs into Kirkuk and the surrounding area to increase his influence and change the region’s ethnic makeup. The Kurds have repeatedly said that now Saddam is gone, they want the areas back. After winning 25 percent of the vote in last month’s Iraqi election, giving them 75 seats in the new 275-seat national assembly, the Kurdish coalition is in a strong bargaining position.

They could give their backing to Iraq’s main Shiite alliance, which will have a slim majority in the assembly but must cut a deal to secure the two-thirds majority it needs to form a government. Or the Kurds could support the group led by interim Prime Minister Allawi, which won 40 seats in the assembly and is determined to keep their leader at the country’s helm.

“Next week things will be clearer,” Barzani said, adding that the Kurds were also insisting on a top post in the new government. He said the Kurdish coalition was “conducting talks with different groups”. The issue of Kirkuk, 250 kilometers north of Baghdad, remains a sticking point. The city’s population is split roughly in thirds among Kurds, Arabs and Turkish-speaking Turkmen. The Kurds dominated last month’s local elections, taking 59 percent of the vote - partly due to a boycott by Arab and Turkmen parties over a decision to allow Kurdish refugees, many of whom are camped on the outskirts of town, to vote.

Kirkuk is also strategically and economically important. Some six percent of the world’s known oil reserves are located within 50 kilometers of the city. “The issue of Kirkuk is not that big in size, it’s a matter of ownership and property,” Barzani said, adding that the success of the Kurds in the local polls was proof of the city’s Kurdish identity. “When you have the right of ownership, you also have the right to get it back.” Barzani, whose uncle is the head of one of the two main parties in the Kurdish coalition, said anyone seeking a deal with the Kurds would have to demonstrate “belief that the rights of the Kurdish people and their demands should be met in Iraq”. Outlining the relationship he envisaged with Baghdad, he said Kurdish authorities should have full control over the region’s defense, foreign and monetary policy.

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