Washington Times Dec 18 -- good articlehttps://www.krg.org/articles/detail.asp?smap=02010200&lngnr=12&rnr=73&anr=32989
U.S. makes political pledge to Kurds in Iraq
|
|
| » |
Fuad Hussein, chief of staff to President Massoud Barzani |
|
The Obamaadministration coaxed Kurdish leaders into accepting a new election lawthat gives Kurds a smaller percentage of seats in Iraq's nextparliament by publicly committing to broker disputes between the Kurdsand the Baghdad government and committing support for resolving thefuture of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.
Fuad Hussein, chief of staff to President MassoudBarzani of Iraq's Kurdistan region, told editors and reporters of TheWashington Times on Tuesday that the White House commitment last weekwas historic.
It is new, yes, Mr. Hussein said. In our politicalhistory and in our relationship with the United States government, itis the first time we have had such a statement. There was always adiscussion of these matters, but this is the first time in ourpolitical history that the White House gave such a statement.
The statement singled out the Kurds whilecongratulating Iraqis for finally passing a law allowing parliamentaryelections to go forward in March.
There are still challenges facing Iraq, includingdisagreements between the government of Iraq and the Kurdistan RegionalGovernment, the statement said.
It referred specifically to Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution,which sets up procedures - including a referendum - to resolve thestatus of Kirkuk. It also agreed to help Iraq develop a census, a movefavored by the Kurds, who think they are a majority in Kirkuk.
Kurds consider the city to be historically Kurdish.In the 1980s and 1990s, however, the government of Saddam Husseinforced out most of the Kurds and brought Arabs in to replace them.Since the U.S. toppled Saddam in 2003, Kurdish families have returnedto Kirkuk and in some cases displaced those Arabs.
Fuad Hussein said there was a linkage between theWhite House statement and the Kurds accepting a smaller percentage ofseats in the next parliament. The Kurdish bloc currently controls 58 of275 seats, or about 21 percent. Under the new election law, the Kurdswould control between 60 and 65 seats out of 325, or between 18.5percent and 20 percent of the total.
Mr. Hussein said he and others were negotiatingwith legislators in Baghdad as well as U.S. officials for two weeksbefore the election law passed.
We did not think it was fair to give so littleseats to the Kurds, he said. We were thinking about a linkage,accepting this for now, but reaching another target.
In the negotiations over the election law, theKurds had leverage because Iraqi President Jalal Talabani is himself aKurd and has the authority to veto legislation.
Mr. Hussein said that the Kurdish bloc would still be influential.
We can still be the kingmaker, he said. But at the same time, heacknowledged that Iraq's next prime minister would almost certainly bedrawn from the parties representing the country's Shi'ite majority.