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Iraq's PM Nuri al-Maliki arrives in Kurdistan, Erbil
1.6.2007
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June 1, 2007
Erbil, Kurdistan region (iraq), -- Iraq's
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki arrived on Thursday
afternoon in Erbil on several days visit to the
Kurdistan region, a source from the Kurdistan
government said.
"Maliki came for consultation with Kurdish officials
on many issues, including the Iraqi constitution’s
revision, the political situation and relations
between the central government and the Kurdistan
region’s administration," Dr. Fuad Hussein, head of
the Kurdistan presidency office, said.
Prime Minister al-Maliki, who was received at Erbil
international airport by Iraqi Kurdistan's President
Massoud Barzani, is expected to discuss the Kirkuk
issue with Kurdish leadership, Hussein added.
On Tuesday, Kurdistan Premier Nechirvan Barzani
ended several days' visit to Baghdad to discuss with
the central government issues to do with Kurdish
oil-rich Kirkuk city’s status according to Article
140 of the constitution, relations between Baghdad's
government and the Kurdistan administration, the
status of the Peshmerga (Kurdistan national guard)
and the draft oil and gas law. |
President of Iraq's Kurdistan autonomous region Massoud
Barzani (R) greets Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki
(L) at an airport in Erbil May 31, 2007 Reuters |
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Kurds want to accelerate the implementation of
constitutional article 140, concerning normalizing
the situation in Kirkuk city, as it was before the
1970s, when the former regime, Kurds claim, lured
Arabs to settle in Kirkuk and drove Kurdish families
out of the city.
The step should be followed by a referendum in the
city to decide whether or not to join the three
other Kurdish provinces in the Kurdistan region by
the end of 2007. Non-Kurdish Iraqi political forces
are inclined to put off the issue until better
security prevails in the country.
Also, the draft oil and gas law, now under debate by
lawmakers in Baghdad, represents another deadlock
between Erbil and Baghdad. Kurdish leaders are
pressing for more power in relation to oil
investment inside the region, while Baghdad has
opted to control all investment contracts in the
country.
VOI
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Kirkuk city is a Kurdistani city and it lies just
south border of the Kurdistan autonomous region and
it is not under the full control of Kurdistan
Regional Government administration, its population
is a mix of majority Kurds and minority of Arabs,
Turkmen.
The former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein forced
about 250,000 Kurdish residents to give up their
homes to Arabs in the 1970s, to "Arabize" the city
and the region's oil industry.
The Iraqi Constitution mandates that a referendum on
control of Kirkuk must be held by the end of 2007 to
decide whether the oil-rich Kurdish province should
be annexed to the safe semiautonomous Kurdistan
region in Iraq's north.
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