Arab, Kurd crisis has legal solution

KIRKUK, Iraq, March 3 (UPI) -- Conflict between Arabs and Iraqi Kurds can be averted if the status of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk is resolved through legal provisions, officials said.

Kirkuk lies at the center of disputes between Iraqi Kurds and their Arab counterparts. Article 28 of the Iraqi provincial elections law calls for a power-sharing agreement between the city's ethnic groups.

The dispute over Kirkuk prompted a vote there to be delayed. Iraq held provincial elections in 14 of the 18 provinces Jan. 31. A vote in the Kurdish provinces and Kirkuk is scheduled tentatively for May.

Kurdish Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani said recently the dispute could lead to conflict if the matter went unresolved before U.S. forces left the country.

Muhammad Khalil al-Jibouri, a member of an Arab slate in Kirkuk, challenged those sentiments in an interview with the Iraqi political Web site Niqash.

"I do not believe that an Arab-Kurdish war will erupt if U.S. troops withdraw from Iraq," he said. "I also don't believe that U.S. forces are a guarantor against the eruption of conflict."

He went to say that resolving the issues between Arabs and Kurds would make progress toward national reconciliation in greater Iraq.

"We believe that resolving Kirkuk's crisis is a key to resolving all other unsettled disputes (in) Iraq," he added.