This would not be good, and I certainly hope that this issue is hashed out before we draw down too much over there. A war between the Kurds and Arabs would not be good, and only negatively disrupt the progress made so far. Iraq is close to being able to stand on it’s own, but stuff like this could easily rip it apart again. –Matt
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From the Los Angeles Times
Q & A
Kurd sees ‘very bad signals’ from Baghdad
Masrour Barzani, the Kurdish region’s security chief, criticizes the failure so far to implement an article of the Iraq Constitution concerning control of oil-rich Kirkuk.
By Ned Parker
March 28, 2009
Reporting from Salahuddin, Iraq — Masrour Barzani, the head of the Kurdistan regional government’s intelligence service and internal security agency in northern Iraq, rarely speaks in public. He is the powerful son of Massoud Barzani, the region’s president, and is seen as one of the next generation of Kurdish leaders expected to defend the autonomy Iraqi Kurds gained after years of war and instability.
As tensions deepen between the Shiite Muslim-dominated government in Baghdad and the Kurds in the north, Masrour Barzani is a key player in the conflict over land in northern Iraq, including the oil-rich region of Kirkuk.
The Kurds are struggling with how to respond to an ascendant Baghdad, which is reluctant to accede to Kurdish wishes on holding a referendum to settle the fate of the disputed territories. Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution called for such a referendum to be held by December 2007, but the vote was never held. The 40-year-old leader recently spoke with The Times about the impasse, the chances of an Arab-Kurdish conflict and America’s obligation to both Iraq and the Kurds. How do you view the status of Article 140 and efforts by the Iraqi government to replace Kurdish officers with Arab leadership in the Iraqi army in the disputed territories?