BAGHDAD - Iraq may get a new flag to replace one rejected by ethnic Kurds as a symbol of oppression under Saddam Hussein, the government said on Monday, hoping to defuse a nasty row that provoked threats of Kurdish secession. It could be brought up as early as Tuesday in parliament.After the Kurdish regional leader banned the national flag and the prime minister hit back bluntly, government spokesman Ali Al Dabbagh said he understood the Kurds’ position and that designing a new flag now had greater priority. ‘Due to such issues, there will be certain priorities in order to advance approving a new flag,’ he told Reuters. ‘It was not urgent but now it is more urgent.’
| “ ‘We understand the sensitivity of the Kurdistan people, that they have been killed under this flag.’ ” |
Dabbagh defended the statement on Sunday by Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki, a Shi’ite Arab, that said only the national tricolour must be flown and implied the Kurdish regional flag, ubiquitous in the northern mountains, had no official standing. ‘But,’ he said, ‘We understand the sensitivity of the Kurdistan people, that they have been killed under this flag.’
| This is hopeful -- politicans are going to work it out without reaching for their shootin' irons. |
Nawzat Saleh Rifaat, a member of parliament from Talabani’s party, told Reuters: ‘We demand the flag be changed. We are seeking to change it so that all Iraqi people would be united.
‘This does not mean we want to secede. At the first session of parliament, we will ask for a new flag and national anthem.’
The red, white and black horizontal tricolour with a line of three green stars in the middle is a Baathist design adopted after a 1963 coup and modelled after that of other Arab states. It replaced a design that featured a sun motif representing the Kurds. After invading Kuwait in 1990, Saddam added the words ‘Allahu Akbar’ (God is Greatest) in his own hand. Since he fell, new flags feature the words in a neutral printed typography.