June
2, 2007
Erbil, Kurdistan region (Iraq), --- Iraqi
Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said on Friday that
the Kurdish government has reservations on the Iraqi
government's commitments regarding the region's
demands.
In statements after the meeting between Iraqi Prime
Minister Nouri al-Maliki and Kurdistan's President
Massoud Barzani in Salah ad-Din resort, the minister
said "the government of Kurdistan region has
reservations on the commitments of the Iraqi
government on the Kurdistan region's constitutional
demands. There is a need to get mutual
understandings on these demands."
"Both officials tackled issues that concerns Iraq,
mainly political and security challenges," Zebari
also said, noting that the premier's visit came
within the context of boosting coordination and
consultation between the two governments, in
addition to exchanging viewpoints regarding critical
issues. |
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari |
|
"The two discussed means to activate political blocs
to support the government's programs and to continue
efforts to realize national reconciliation," the
foreign minister stated.
"Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution was also on
the meeting agenda," he said, noting that they
emphasized it is a constitutional right and we need
to apply it but within a joint understanding.
Zebari said that the meeting also aimed at fostering
political allies, mainly between the Iraqi Unified
Iraqi Coalition, the Kurdistan Coalition and other
political blocs.
Iraqi Prime Minister
Nouri al-Maliki arrived in
Iraq's Kurdistan on Thursday
afternoon.
On Tuesday, Kurdistan Premier Nechirvan Barzani
ended several days' visit to Baghdad to discuss with
the central government issues to do with 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 Gurad) and the draft
oil and gas law.
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
**
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.
Based on Iraq's Constitution a referendum is to be
held in late 2007 to decide whether the oil-rich
Kurdish province should be annexed to the safe
semiautonomous Kurdistan region in Iraq's north.
Top |
® 