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| Iraq | |
| Tensions Still High Along Kurdish-Arab Line | |
| 2010-10-24 | |
| The new trove of documents released by WikiLeaks portrays the long history of tensions between Kurds and Arabs in the north of Iraq and reveals the fears of some American units about what might happen after American troops leave the country by the end of 2011. “Without strong and fair influence, likely from a third party, these tensions may quickly turn to violence after the U.S. forces withdrawal,” warned a Sept. 28, 2009, field report. Experts have long watched the tensions in the region with worry. Their main fear is not that senior Kurdish officials will seek a confrontation with the Shiite-dominated government in Baghdad. The main interest of the political leadership, many experts say, is making sure the oil-rich region continues to grow economically. Rather, it is that local Kurdish and Arab politicians and security officials may take matters into their own hands if crucial disputes remain unsettled, particularly after the departure of American forces, which have regularly worked behind the scenes to head off confrontations. Kurds and Arabs are at odds over power-sharing arrangements in the Kirkuk region, the degree of federalism that should be allowed in the Iraqi state, the terms of a new oil law and territorial disputes. Those disputes have been complicated by the fact that American forces initially welcomed the presence of Kurdish troops, the pesh merga, in some parts of northern Iraq to help fend off insurgents. Relations have been so fraught that Gen. Ray Odierno, who recently left his post as the senior American commander in Iraq, established a series of checkpoints, maintained by American, Iraqi and Kurdish soldiers, to head off confrontations, either accidental or planned. Obama administration officials have voiced hopes that the Kurds’ participation in a new governing coalition will foster long-deferred compromises and lead to the gradual integration of pesh merga fighters into Iraq’s army. But little headway has been made on Kurdish-Arab issues in recent years. The administration is also planning to open embassy branch offices in the cities of Mosul and Kirkuk, which would enable American diplomats to focus on Arab and Kurdish issues even after American forces depart.
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| Posted by:Steve White |