Saleh to visit Baghdad for further negotiations

[Stillw8n]

Saleh to visit Baghdad for further negotiations
10/10/2011 14:53

Baghdad, Oct. 10 (AKnews) - Kurdish Prime Minister Barham Saleh will visit Baghdad in order to continue the negotiations over outstanding issues between the federal and the Kurdish governments.

According to Adel Berwari, advisor for Kurdish affairs to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, Saleh will visit Baghdad in the next couple of days.

A delegation of Kurdish politicians that visited Baghdad for negotiation over the oil law and other outstanding issues last week, said that, although no decision were made, the negotiations were "positive".

The tensions between Baghdad and Erbil are sparked by a list of demands that the Kurds believe they are entitled to after they lent their support to Prime Minister al-Maliki after the last election: the integration of the Kurdish defense forces (the Peshmarga) into the Iraqi army, paid for by the Iraqi government; drafting a new hydrocarbon law; and the implementation of Article 140 into the Iraqi constitution -- which authorizes payments to Kurds who were forced from their homes under Saddam Hussein, a comprehensive census of ethnic groups and a referendum to decide if disputed areas should fall under the control of Kurdistan Regional Government.

Tension rose recently when the Kurds accused the federal government of passing a draft law without taking the Kurdish opinion into consideration.

On the other hand, Baghdad criticized Erbil for signing contracts with international oil companies without the consent of the federal Oil Ministry.

Last week, Maliki supposedly gave his approval for all Kurdish demands, except one to finance the Kurdish Army, or Peshmarga, as part of the federal defense budget, according to Aref Tayfur, second deputy speaker of parliament and member of the Kurdish Blocs Coalition.

However, this was not the long awaited solution for the dispute, since Tayfur also claimed that Maliki's only condition was that the demands were not contrary to the constitution. This has always been Maliki's standpoint.

Reported by Haider Ibrahim

RN/CU/AKnews


http://aknews.com/en/aknews/4/266249/