KIRKUK, Iraq, June 15 (UPI) -- Disputed claims to the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk among various ethnic groups boil down fights over who controls the oil, officials say.
Kirkuk lies at the heart of administrative disputes between Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq.
Control over the oil-rich city of Kirkuk is in dispute. Two constitutional provisions deal with the issue. Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution considers whether enough Kurds have returned to the area to consider it Kurdish, while Article 23 calls for a power-sharing arrangement between Kurds, Turkomen and Arabs at the local level.
A parliamentary committee tasked with settling the Kirkuk issue came away from a March 31 resolution deadline with nothing to show in terms of political settlements.
But lawmakers on the ground claim the obstacles over the political settlement over the status of Kirkuk have little to do with ethno-sectarian issues, The Guardian newspaper reports.
With Kurdish oil exports coming online June 1 and international oil tenders slated for approval by the end of the month, settling the political problems may require action in the Iraqi energy sector.
"The Kirkuk problem comes down to oil," said Osama al-Najafi, a Sunni lawmaker.
