Kirkuk behind all Kurds’ problems with Iraqi governments – Barzani

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: President of Iraq’s Kurdistan region, Massoud Barzani, said that the Kirkuk cause stood behind all Kurds’ problems with the Iraqi government, calling to solve it according to article 140 of the constitution. In an interview with the Asharqalawsat newspaper in London within his European tour, the president said “situation in Iraq would not be stable without solving the Kirkuk cause.” Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution is related to the normalization of the situation in Kirkuk city and other disputed areas. Kurds seek to include the city in the autonomous Iraq’s Kurdistan region, while Sunni Muslims, Turkmen and Shiites oppose the incorporation. The article currently stipulates that all Arabs in Kirkuk be returned to their original locations in southern and central Iraqi areas, and formerly displaced residents returned to Kirkuk, 250 km northeast of Baghdad. 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. These stages were supposed to end on December 31, 2007, a deadline that was later extended to six months to end on June 30 2008. The president had started a multi-leg European tour on February 23 and arrived in London last Monday March 9 coming from Berlin. “The tour comes in response to invitations from Italy, Germany and Britain to explain the Iraqi situation, mainly in Kurdistan region, and to encourage them to invest ,in Iraq and in Kurdistan after the recent improvement in the security situation,” the Kurdish president said. Regarding the possibility to hold the next Arab summit in Kurdistan, he said “we will be glad to host such a meeting and will work to render it a success.” On the pending issues between Arbil and Baghdad, Barzani said “we bear so many things for Iraq’s interest and finally we formed five committees to follow up these pending files and hope the committees could reach to solutions for these five files; partnership, security and army, oil and gas, article 140 and the foreign policy.” SH (I)/SR 1