Opposing agendas snarl Shiite, Kurd cooperation in Iraq

[cthrumatrix]

Opposing agendas snarl Shiite, Kurd cooperation in Iraq

Mon Feb 28,10:05 AM ET World - The Christian Science Monitor


The two groups are at loggerheads on a number of issues.

By Jill Carroll, Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor

BAGHDAD - In the month since Iraqis rushed to the polls in support of democracy, getting anything done has proved a painstaking process of consensus-building that's now focused on two political groups whose interests are diametrically opposed.

The national assembly that will write the country's permanent constitution cannot meet until key government positions are assigned. And central to determining how power will be allocated are the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), religious Shiites who hold the majority of seats, and the once-powerless Kurds, who control the second-largest number of seats in the assembly.


The two groups are at loggerheads on a number of issues. The Shiites are determined to use Islam as a legal cornerstone, something the staunchly secular Kurds reject. The Kurds say they will cooperate only with those who offer them control of oil-rich Kirkuk - a promise that Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the Shiite choice for prime minister, has said the UIA will never make.


But the Kurds are showing little inclination, publicly at least, to compromise. "Even if we are forced to fight for our rights" with guns, we will, says Abduljalil Feili, the head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party in central and southern Iraq (news - web sites). "We prefer negotiations and a political solution. we will use all the options we have."

snip

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=2327&e=6&u=/csm/20050228/wl_csm/ojockey_1

Now ...how many people predicted "civil war" if we invaded Iraq?

[Politiclo8]

1. Well, well, another example....................

of Bush being a uniter and not a divider <sarcasm off>