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The Iraqi Kurds are now
the "arbiters" of politics in Iraq and can win the
"big prize" of autonomy, Hoshyar Zebari, Iraq's
interim foreign minister, has said.
Mr Zebari, a leading official in the Kurdistan
Democratic party, said he expected the Kurdish list
to take 75-85 of 275 parliamentary seats and hold
the balance between the main Shia list, topped by
Abd al-Aziz Hakim, and the list of Iyad Allawi, the
interim prime minister.
"We will be the arbiters of many key decisions," he
said in an interview with the Financial Times.
Since the high Kurdish turnout in Sunday's election,
the KDP has been consulting the Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan (PUK), the second main party on the list.
Mr Zebari said the two parties would keep "a
coherent and united [Kurdish] position - if we are
going to side, hypothetically, with the Shia list,
it is because they are going to run the government
according to what we want. We will pick and choose".
Mr Zebari refused to "reveal our cards" on whom the
Kurds might support as prime minister.
Neither would he reveal which senior position the
Kurds would seek. However, he agreed the post of
parliamentary speaker would be "very important, a
key position" as the parliament drew up over the
next 11 months a new constitution, which the Kurdish
leaders want to recognise the substantial autonomy
the Kurds have exercised since 1991.
Mr Zebari said the election had given the Kurdish
leaders a renewed mandate and he attacked the
Kurdish referendum movement, which in December gave
a 1.7m-signature petition for independence to the
United Nations and on Sunday gathered unofficial
votes for the cause.
He said the movement questioned "the credibility of
the Kurdish leadership when we need to speak with
one language . . . [in] going for the big prize of a
democratic, federal and united Iraq".
Mr Zebari criticised US management of Iraqi politics
since May 2003, when Washington rejected a proposal
from the former opposition to Saddam Hussein for the
early establishment of a sovereign government.
"Every step now is a repetition of what we [the
former opposition] agreed then, but after so much
blood has been shed, so many resources wasted, so
much time spent in crisis," he said.
But Mr Zebari disagreed with those who argued in the
election for a timetable for withdrawing US-led
forces.
He said to do so without a "viable Iraqi force"
would "give motivation and encouragement to the
enemy".
Mr Zebari said the mandate of US-led forces under UN
Security Council resolution 1546 lasted until a new
government was elected under a new constitution in
December.
"Then it would be up to the government to decide
whether to reach a status-of-forces agreement, as
many countries have done, or to say, thank you very
much [goodbye]," he said.
http://www.ft.com
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