Iraq: dangerous face-to-face between Arabs and Kurdish

BAGHDAD- In spite of the American mediation, the territorial dispute between Baghdad and the autonomous region of Kurdistan is in a dangerous impasse

• In spite of the American mediation, the territorial dispute between Baghdad and the autonomous region of Kurdistan is in a dangerous impasse and could degenerate into armed clashes without the beginning of a serious dialogue, prevent political actors and experts.
  
      The U.S. government quickly recognized the danger of the status quo in northern Iraq, where the incidents between the Kurdish Peshmerga and the Iraqi army are not uncommon on an invisible border from Iran to Syria.
  
      Not only the dialogue is at a standstill between Baghdad and Erbil, the capital of Kurdistan, but both sides increase the use of provocative and inflammatory rhetoric, contributing to worsening the situation.
  
      Nobody wants “war,” says a Western senior diplomat. “But when there are serious tensions and people are extremely well armed, something could easily happen,” he insists.
  
      As demonstrated by incidents earlier this year, the “face-to-face tense could inadvertently trigger broader conflict in the absence of a rapid, precise and strong political leadership,” says the think tank “International Crisis Group” (ICG) in a recent report.
  
      Citing the fight against terrorism and defending the oil infrastructure, Baghdad has sent in the summer of 2008 thousands of soldiers in the disputed areas - victims of the Arabization policy of Saddam Hussein, as Khanaqin - where Peshmerga have taken a position since 2003.
  
      The government of Nouri al-Maliki in particular has deployed its 12th Division in Kirkuk and placed at its head General Abdel Amir al-Zaydi, a former Ba'athist officer of Saddam Hussein. A frontal attack for the Kurds.
  
      Determined not to let go of an inch, they voted on 24 June a constitution that provides for integration in Kurdistan mixed contested areas, including the province of Kirkuk.
  
      “Kirkuk is Kurdish as Erbil, Dohuk and Souleimaniyah and is part of Kurdistan. All geographical and historical documents prove it,” said Tuesday Massoud Barzani.
  
      Arab side, the anger roars, uniting Sunnis and Shiites. “The Kurdish constitution makes us angry because it is the first step of a proposed secession,” said Salah al-Obeidi, spokesman for the Shiite Sadrist movement.
  
      As for the Turcoman minority opposed to the projects of Kurdistan, it wants to create armed militias to, officially, defend itself against the frequent attacks.
  
      “This territorial dispute is even more difficult to resolve that each side relies on a huge existential question,” summed up the Western diplomat.
  
      “On the one hand, the Kurds speak about their own survival: (will the Arabs come back and do what they have failed to do (under Saddam)? While the rest of Iraq wonders if the Kurds will prevent a viable Iraqi state to exist.)
  
      Supported in its efforts by Washington, the United Nations favours a solution for example, a special status for Kirkuk, which would have institutional links with both central and regional Kurdish powers.
  
      But the intransigence of the players, especially Massoud Barzani, who is ready angry temperament, blocks any progress, especially as the United States and neighbouring countries close to the Kurds such as France, through its Head of diplomacy Bernard Kouchner, lack of frankness, according to the diplomat.
  
      “Nobody looks Massoud Barzani in the eye and says: stop raising tensions.”
  
      “The best way to reduce tension would be to create a serious dialogue between Baghdad and Erbil,” resumed the independent Kurdish MP, Mahmoud Othman. Problem: “Everybody talks about dilaogue, but nobody takes any real initiative.”
  
      
  Ennaharonline/ M. O.