.US must resolve Kurdish issues before pullout: Barzani
ARBIL, Iraq (AFP) — The United States must resolve policy snags between Baghdad and the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq before any troop pullout, a senior Kurdish official said on Tuesday.
US President Barack "Obama has said more than once that they will withdraw (American troops) in a responsible manner from Iraq," said Nechirvan Barzani, the prime minister of the Kurdish regional government.
"What we understand by a responsible withdrawal is that the United States resolve the problems outstanding in Iraq and help the Iraqis confront these problems," told reporters in Arbil.
"I restate that the role of the United States should be to help resolve the problems in Iraq such as Article 140, the oil law, and the law on the distribution of its oil wealth."
Article 140 of Iraq's new constitution calls for a settlement of territorial disputes dating back to the Arabisation policies of dictator Saddam Hussein who ousted Kurds from Kirkuk and resettled the region with Arabs.
US Vice President Joe Biden visited Iraq in January, a week before he and Obama took office, and also travelled to the troubled oil-rich city of Kirkuk.
The province of Kirkuk, with its 900,000 inhabitants, is an ethnically mixed region made up of Arabs, Kurds, Turkmen and Christians. The Kurds want it attached to their autonomous region.
Under a security pact signed by Baghdad and Washington in November last year, US troops are to withdraw from Iraq by the end of 2011.
Barzani also insisted that his regional government's contracts with foreign oil companies were valid and that Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani could not annul them.
"We haven't done anything that is unconstitutional," he said.
"Shahristani has no right to block oil contracts concluded by the Kurdistan government with foreign companies as long as the contracts respect international criteria and the constitutional powers granted to Kurdistan."
AFP
US President Barack "Obama has said more than once that they will withdraw (American troops) in a responsible manner from Iraq," said Nechirvan Barzani, the prime minister of the Kurdish regional government.
"What we understand by a responsible withdrawal is that the United States resolve the problems outstanding in Iraq and help the Iraqis confront these problems," told reporters in Arbil.
"I restate that the role of the United States should be to help resolve the problems in Iraq such as Article 140, the oil law, and the law on the distribution of its oil wealth."
Article 140 of Iraq's new constitution calls for a settlement of territorial disputes dating back to the Arabisation policies of dictator Saddam Hussein who ousted Kurds from Kirkuk and resettled the region with Arabs.
US Vice President Joe Biden visited Iraq in January, a week before he and Obama took office, and also travelled to the troubled oil-rich city of Kirkuk.
The province of Kirkuk, with its 900,000 inhabitants, is an ethnically mixed region made up of Arabs, Kurds, Turkmen and Christians. The Kurds want it attached to their autonomous region.
Under a security pact signed by Baghdad and Washington in November last year, US troops are to withdraw from Iraq by the end of 2011.
Barzani also insisted that his regional government's contracts with foreign oil companies were valid and that Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani could not annul them.
"We haven't done anything that is unconstitutional," he said.
"Shahristani has no right to block oil contracts concluded by the Kurdistan government with foreign companies as long as the contracts respect international criteria and the constitutional powers granted to Kurdistan."
AFP
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