Political fissures in Baghdad; Jones calls for AFPAK patience

Baghdad government unraveling

The political system in Baghdad fractured Thursday as ministers faced tough criticism from Parliament while top leaders questioned the nature of government.

The Iraqi Commission on Public Integrity earlier this week issued arrest warrants for close to 1,000 public officials on charges of government corruption. This comes as Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki accepted the resignation of Abdul al-Falah al-Sudani, a Shiite lawmaker who served as Trade Minister.

Iraqi Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani, meanwhile, faces calls for his resignation while allegations of criminal activity surface in the Iraqi Interior Ministry.

On Thursday, Nour al-Din al-Hayali with the Accordance Front, a Sunni bloc, announced that 25 lawmakers moved to summon Iraqi Finance Minister Bayan Jabr from the pivotal Shiite Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council to answer questions on the firing of government employees, the Voices of Iraq news agency reports.

Hayali pointed to constitutional provisions which stress the importance of maintaining government salaries, noting over 13,000 contracts for civilian employees in Ninawa province were canceled.

The provincial council in Ninawa, meanwhile, faces its own challenges as Kurdish lawmakers continue their boycott of the Sunni-led government.

Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdul Mahdi, in related developments, said he opposes Maliki's position that Iraqi should be governed by a presidential system, instead favoring a parliamentary government.

"Our choice of the parliamentary system was based on the multiplicity of the Iraqi people and its population's nature as well as Iraq's long experience with tyranny and centrality," he said.

The political developments come as Iraq prepares for a public referendum on the bilateral Status of Forces Agreement with Washington. Officials with the Independent High Electoral Commission of Iraq called for budgetary allocations and legal provisions in order to conduct the referendum in June.

Turkish jets bomb Kurdish targets in Iraq

Turkish military jets bombed Kurdish separatist targets Thursday in northern Iraq less than a week before a defensive cease-fire expires.

The Turkish air force struck targets in the Avasin-Basyan area in northern Iraq following an explosion that killed six soldiers. The U.S. military has shared sensitive intelligence information with Turkish officials about the activity of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, in Iraq.

The PKK and its affiliate Free Life Party of Kurdistan, or PJAK, are considered terrorist organizations by regional governments as well as the United States. Turkish and Iranian forces have ramped up their activity against the Kurdish separatist in recent weeks.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul, meanwhile, told journalist during a visit to Kyrgyzstan the issues posed by the so-called Kurdish question are "everyone's problem," adding there was no room for negotiations with terrorists, the Turkish daily Hurriyet reports.

His statements come on the heels of a proposition by Murad Karayilan, the acting chief of the PKK, for a end to the conflict with Turkey, which has dragged on for nearly 25 years.

Karayilan in an interview with the Times of London said it was time for a peaceful resolution.

"We believe we can solve the Kurdish question without spilling more blood," he said. "We are ready for a peaceful and democratic solution in Turkey -- to be solved within Turkey's borders."

He called for a provision whereby the PKK receives its own representative authority in the region, ordering his forces to take a defensive posture until June 1 to give Ankara time to consider the proposal.

"If Turkey doesn't accept our overtures and continues to attack us then of course we will use all means to defend ourselves, and that includes retaliation," he said.

Kirkuk mission ends in failure

A fact-finding mission by the Iraqi Parliament to hammer out a resolution to a power-sharing agreement for disputes in Kirkuk ended in failure, lawmakers say.

Radio Free Iraq, a division of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, spoke with Arab lawmakers in the Kirkuk provincial council who blamed external forces for blocking a settlement agreement.

"The fact-finding mission has failed because of influences from outside Kirkuk," said Burhan al-Assi.

The Arab lawmakers said the only way to resolve the issue was through a consensus agreement between the three major ethnic groups, Kurds, Arabs and Turkomen.

In an effort to alter the demographics of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein launched a campaign in the late 1980s to drive Kurdish, Arab and Turkoman families from the region. Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution considers whether enough Kurds have returned to the area to consider it Kurdish.

Another, Article 23 calls for a power-sharing arrangement between Kurds, Turkomen and Arabs at the local level.

Ali Mehdi with the Turkoman bloc in the Kirkuk provincial council called for a special status for Kirkuk while Awat Muhammad, a Kurdish provincial council member, said the situation was doomed.

"(This) unfortunately shows that the three communities are incapable of resolving their own problems," he said.

Jones calls for patience with AFPAK

It will take at least a year to determine if the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan is working, said retired Gen. James Jones, the U.S. national security adviser.

U.S. President Barack Obama unveiled his strategy for Afghanistan that couples a modest troop surge with non-military aid to Pakistan.

The Afghan strategy is modeled after the counterinsurgency strategy in Iraq dubbed the surge, which linked reconstruction to security issues.

Jones told an audience at The Atlantic Council, a Washington think tank, that the planned 21,000 troop deployment to Afghanistan was critical to stemming the growing insurgency, but was not enough to guarantee success.

Jones, in his first speech on U.S. speech on national security since joining the Obama White House, said a three-pronged approach to Afghanistan addressing security, economic development and government reform would serve Washington and the region well if the strategy is implemented successfully.

"The jury is still out, to be frank," he cautioned.

He went on to say it could take "about a year" to determine if the latest strategy in Afghanistan is effective.

Poppies for jihad

Insurgents are pressuring farmers in the southern Afghan province of Farah to grow poppies to support the jihad against foreign occupation, warlords say.

Insurgent commanders in Farah province told the U.N.'s humanitarian news agency they considered opium production part of a tax to support the fight against the Americans.

"It is an obligation upon every Muslim in this country to pay and support the 'jihad' and the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan," said one commander, Shah Mohammad.

The Afghan government bowed to international pressure by declaring poppy cultivation illegal, moving to eliminate the opium harvest in the country.

William Byrd with the World Bank told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that eradicating poppy fields requires finding an alternative cash crop for area farmers while encouraging police action against traffickers and processing labs.

Though Afghanistan is responsible for as much as 90 percent of the world's opium, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crimes and other officials say poppy cultivation is concentrated in the southern provinces, where the insurgency is centered.

The May 4 airstrike in the Bala Boluk district of Farah province that killed scores of civilians came in the wake of a gun battle as insurgents demanded a share of the income local farmers generated from poppy harvests.

Watkins slated for Afghan post

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed Canadian diplomat Robert Watkins as the next deputy U.N. envoy for Afghanistan.

Watkins replaces Swedish diplomat Bo Asplund and will serve as the chief U.N. representative for development and humanitarian affairs in Afghanistan.

The Canadian diplomat had served since 2006 as the U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator and the U.N. Development Program representative in Georgia.

He boasts Latin American experience as the chief representative for the European Community Humanitarian aid Office in the Dominican Republic.

In the Middle East, Watkins served as the head of ECHO in Jordan and served as the top official with the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Turkey and in Iraq.

Asplund completes his assignment with the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan this summer.

"The Secretary-General is grateful to Asplund for his dedicated service for the past two years in Afghanistan," said U.N. spokesperson Marie Okabe in New York.

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(dgraeber@upi.com)