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Kurdistan president Massoud Barzani in USA
over Kirkuk elections
13.8.2008
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August
13, 2008
Erbil-Hewler, Kurdistan region "Iraq", —
Iraqi Provinces Councils Law issue will arrives to
the USA where the president of the Iraqi Kurdistan
Region, Massoud Barzani is paying a visit in order
to answer a formal invitation Alsumaria TV website
reported. There he will meet President George Bush
and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates with whom he
would tackle Kirkuk issue, the structure of Iraq
army as well as the strategic agreement between USA
and Iraq.
To that, well informed sources announced that
President Jalal Talabani who is actually in
Washington undergoing an operation,www.ekurd.net
will take part in
Barzani talks with US officials regarding sundry
sensitive controversial issues for different Iraqi
parties.
No other news agencies confirmed Barzani's visit to
USA.
In the meantime, Vice President Tareq Al Hashimi
criticized the way in which political parties dealt
with Provinces Councils Elections Law and uttered he
is sorry for not reaching a consensus regarding
Kirkuk issue. After finishing his medical treatment
in Turkey, Hashimi said that the stubbornness of
some parliamentary blocs, which he refused to name,
aborted bids to solve Kirkuk issue. |
Massoud Barzani, the President of the autonomous Regional
Government of Kurdistan 'Iraq' |
On July 22, the Iraqi Parliament,www.ekurd.net
with the approval
of 127 deputies out of 140 who attended the session,
passed the law
on provincial council elections, which includes an
article postponing the elections in the Kurdish city
of Kirkuk.
Since the bill came before the house last month, thousands of Kurds have
staged a series of angry demonstrations against the
law in
Erbil, capital
of the Kurdistan region, also in
Sulaimaniyah,
Duhok and Kirkuk.
The Presidential Board, with the unanimity of
President Jalal Talabani and his two deputies Adel
Abdelmahdi and Tareq al-Hashimi,
rejected the law in a rapid reaction
one day after the Iraqi Parliament passed it during
a session that raised hue and cry over its
constitutionality.
Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU) Member of Parliament
Sami Atruchi clarified that the committee that was
formed by the parliament regarding elections law is
still carrying on its meetings in order to reach a
consensus regarding Kirkuk issue. However, he
discarded reaching solutions in the next few days
because each parliamentary bloc sticks to its own
point of view regarding the law he said. Atruchi
expected that Provinces Councils Elections would
take place next March because Iraq’s election
commission is unable to organize elections during
the current year.
Kirkuk city is historically a Kurdish city
and it lies just south border of the Kurdistan
autonomous region, the population is a mix of
majority Kurds and minority of Arabs, Christians and
Turkmen. lies 250 km northeast of Baghdad. Kurds
have a strong cultural and emotional attachment to Kirkuk,
which they call "the Kurdish Jerusalem."
Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution is related to
the normalization of the situation in Kirkuk city
and other disputed areas.
The article also calls for conducting a census to be
followed by a referendum to let the inhabitants
decide whether they would like Kirkuk to be annexed
to the autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region or having
it as an independent province.
The former regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein
had forced over 250,000 Kurdish residents to give up
their homes to Arabs in the 1970s, to "Arabize"
the city and the region's oil industry.
Copyright, respective author or news agency,
alsumaria tv | Agencies
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