As Biden Takes Lead on Iraq Policy, Kurds Seek More From U.S.

As Biden Takes Lead on Iraq Policy, Kurds Seek More From U.S.

• CQ Staff Josh Rogin, Cq Staff – Wed Jul 1, 3:53 pm ET
  
  

As Sunni and Shiite Arabs dance in the streets to celebrate the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraqi cities, Iraq's other major ethnic group is pleading for increased U.S. commitment and involvement in Iraqi affairs.
"When people see a diminished U.S. presence in the region, they could translate that into a diminished U.S. leverage in the region," said Qubad Talabani, the top Kurdish representative in Washington.
"We're going to see continued tensions, we're going to see continued mistrust, and that will make it very difficult for the U.S. to implement its stated policy of phased and responsible withdrawal from the country," said Talabani, representative of the Kurdistan Regional Government to the United States and son of Jalal Talabani, president of Iraq.
The Kurds fear what they see as a "tug of war" in Washington between those who want to move on from Iraq and those who want a continued focus, Talabani said.
He called not only for a sustained U.S. military presence in Iraq, but for a more forceful use of U.S. levers of power to pressure the Iraqi government under Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki to share power and resources with Iraqi minority groups.
"Even though some in Washington may want the Iraq issue to go away, many of us know that it will stay with us for quite a while," Talabani said. "We should not lull ourselves into a false sense of security."
June 30 marked the official date that U.S. forces were to leave Iraqi cities, as part of the Status of Forces Agreement and security framework signed by the two governments in the twilight of the Bush administration. The Iraqi government declared the day a national holiday.
More than 200 people have been killed as violence has increased in Iraq in recent weeks, prompting fears that terrorist groups would exploit the hand over of power to incite unrest and chaos.
U.S. military forces will likely be needed in Iraq past the end of 2011, the current agreed deadline for complete American withdrawal, said Talabani.
That agreement is a "living document that can be and will most likely be modified," he predicted, adding, "Nothing is set in stone when it comes to Iraq."
Biden's Role Talking with a group of reporters Wednesday, Talabani called for a much greater U.S. civil and political "soft power" engagement in Iraq, as well as a more structured U.S. presence to include consulates in major Iraqi cities.
Also, the United States should restrict its military assistance and hardware sales based on the Maliki government's willingness to share power with non-Shiite groups, Talabani said.
"There will still be a heavy dependence on the goodwill of the U.S. military, and that good will should not be unconditioned," he said.
In addition to issues of oil revenue sharing and security responsibility, the issue of disputed territories throughout Iraq will continue to thwart reconciliation until resolved, said Talabani.
"That should worry the U.S., because you cannot responsibly and in a phased way withdraw from Iraq if things go south in Kirkuk," he said.
Talabani also hailed the Obama administration's Tuesday announcement that Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. will have an increased role in overseeing Iraq policy and assisting the Iraqi reconciliation process.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Tuesday that Biden will "oversee the policy" on Iraq and work with the Iraqi ethnic groups to overcome political differences and achieve long-sought reconciliation.
As a senator, Biden was at times a staunch critic of Maliki's pro-Shiite approach and drafted a plan that called for a federal system in Iraq that included significant regional autonomy. The Senate adopted a non-binding sense of the Senate amendment in support of Biden's Iraq plan in 2007 by a vote of 75-23.
But the politics both in Washington and Baghdad have changed since then, said Talabani, and Biden's stature and seniority reassure Iraqis the Obama administration is still taking the issue seriously.
Still, much work and many setbacks loom before success of the U.S. mission in Iraq can be declared, he warned.
Referencing over-enthusiastic U.S. government celebrations earlier on in the war, Talabani quipped, "Having lived through Mission Accomplished 1, we don't want to live through a Mission Accomplished 2."

Kurdistan's parliament responded to Biden and mediation postponed constitutional referendum
قصف للمدفعية الإيرانية يحرق 5 من قري السليمانية Iranian artillery shelling of villages burned 5 Sulaymaniyah

أربيل - الزمان: Erbil - Date:
أعلن رئيس برلمان اقليم كردستان العراق عدنان المفتي تأجيل الاستفتاء علي مشروع دستور للاقليم الي موعد غير محدد بعد معارضة مفوضية الانتخابات اجراءه اواخر تموز الحالي. President of the Parliament of Iraq's Kurdistan province, Adnan al-Mufti said a referendum on a draft constitution for the province to an undetermined date after the opposition to the Electoral Commission to make this the end of July. وكان نائب الرئيس الامريكي جو بايدن قد قال خلال زيارته بغداد الاسبوع الماضي انه استجاب لطلب رئيس الوزراء العراقي نوري المالكي بالتوسط لدي رئيس اقليم كردستان مسعود البارزاني بتأجيل الاستفتاء علي دستور الاقليم الذي ينص علي ان كركوك وعدداً من محافظات الموصل وديالي جزء من اقليم كردستان. The U.S. vice-president Joe Biden said during his visit last week that Baghdad has responded to the request of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, to mediate the President of the Kurdistan region Massoud Barzani to postpone the referendum on the Constitution of the Territory, which provides that a number of Kirkuk and Mosul and Diyala provinces as part of Kurdistan. علي صعيد آخر قال مسؤول كردي عراقي ان المدفعية الايرانية قصفت صباح الاثنين عدة قري باقليم كردستان العراق، مما ادي الي اندلاع النيران في عدد من البساتين العائدة لمواطنين أكراد عراقيين. On the other hand an Iraqi Kurdish official said that Iranian artillery shelled several villages on Monday morning, Iraq's Kurdistan province, which has led to the outbreak of fire in a number of orchards belonging to the Iraqi Kurdish citizens. وقال المسؤول الكردي المحلي الذي طلب عدم ذكر اسمه، ان "القصف المدفعي الايراني المكثف الذي استمر 45 دقيقة ابتداء من الساعة الخامسة والنصف من فجر الاثنين بحسب التوقيت المحلي، أسفر عن احتراق العديد من بساتين المواطنين وطال مناطق سنين وديركمه وسروكه وميركة مير، التابعة لناحية سيدكان بقضاء سوران". The Kurdish official, who requested anonymity, said that "Iran's heavy artillery bombardment, which lasted 45 minutes, starting at the fifth and a half from the dawn of Monday, according to local time, which resulted in the burning of many of the gardens of the citizens and the long years and Deirkmh and Srokh Mirani and Mir, of the hand Sidakan Suran juvenile. " ولم يبلغ المصدر المذكور عن وقوع اصابات بشرية جراء القصف. No question about the source of human infections caused by the bombing. يشار الي ان المدفعية والطائرات الايرانية والتركية ما فتئت تقصف ولو بشكل متقطع مناطق في المرتفعات الجبلية العراقية الحدودية، بزعم ضرب قواعد حزب "العمال الكردستاني" المحظور في تركيا، وحركة "بزاك" الكردية المنشقة عنه. It should be noted that the artillery and the Iranian and Turkish aircraft have been bombing, even if only sporadically in the mountainous areas of the Iraqi border, allegedly hit the party rules, "the PKK" is banned in Turkey, and the "Bzak" by Kurdish dissident.

US diplomacy leaves Kurds adrift
By Mohammed A Salih

WASHINGTON - The indefinite postponement of a referendum on Iraqi Kurdistan's controversial draft constitution just days after a visit by United States Vice President Joe Biden has given rise to speculation that Washington may have played a role in the delay.

Despite initial expectations that the charter would be put to a vote on July 25 amid Kurdish parliamentary and presidential elections, just a few days after Biden landed in Iraq, the country's Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) said it was impossible to hold the vote on that date.

While there has been no official confirmation of Biden's possible role in the delay, a series of events and statements strongly



indicate possible behind-the-scenes diplomacy by the US to prevent new problems from emerging as the Barack Obama administration desperately lobbies for national reconciliation.

Biden, who was appointed by Obama to oversee the administration's Iraq policy on June 30, arrived in Baghdad on July 2 to push Iraqi leaders for "political progress that is necessary to ensure the nation's long-term stability", a White House statement said.

After his visit to Iraq, Biden told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos that he had been asked by Iraqi officials in Baghdad to "communicate to the Kurdish leadership, who I have a close relationship with, that their passing a constitution through their parliament in Kurdistan was not helpful to the process that was under way".

The Kurdish draft constitution had heightened tensions between Kurds and other ethnicities in the country such as Arabs and Turkomans, as well as the Iraqi government.

The major source of contention was provisions declaring oil-rich Kirkuk and a number of other areas deemed disputed territories to be "historically" and "geographically" part of the Kurdish homeland. Those areas are currently outside the jurisdiction of the Kurdish government.

Although Biden had planned to visit the north to meet with senior Kurdish leaders Massoud Barzani and Jalal Talabani, a severe sandstorm prevented his plane from taking off. But after returning to Washington, the vice president called Barzani and Talabani to press "the need to reach a resolution on Iraq's outstanding reconciliation issues", according to a statement from Biden's office on July 7.

A statement posted on Barzani's website, in turn, described the "outstanding issues" as territorial disputes, oil and gas legislation and political reconciliation.

But it was Iraq's Shi'ite Arab Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki who gave near confirmation of the US influence. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal published on July 9, Maliki said Biden had promised him to urge Kurdish leaders to delay the referendum. The prime minister added that he and Biden had both agreed that the proposed Kurdish constitution was bound to "make a lot of trouble and create a lot of differences".

Following Biden's visit, the IHEC took many in Iraq by surprise when it announced on July 7 that it could not hold the referendum. The IHEC cited technical reasons as well as concerns that its "integrity and credibility" could be tainted if it yielded to immense pressure from Kurdish leaders to hold the referendum.

Many inside Kurdistan had also criticized the draft, but on different grounds. Kurdish critics believed the constitution granted too much power to the president of Kurdistan and had called on the IHEC to postpone the vote.

The document was seen mainly as an artifact of Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party and Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. Barzani is the president of the Kurdistan autonomous region, while his longtime rival and now "strategic ally" Talabani is the president of Iraq.

But, ignoring domestic calls, the Kurdish leadership rushed to pass the charter as quickly as possible. They were optimistic that the IHEC would heed their demand to hold the referendum on July 25.

Tariq Sarmami, an advisor to the Kurdish parliament speaker, told the Kurdish official news agency AKnews on July 1 that the IHEC "had shown readiness to prepare grounds for a referendum on the constitution" on the presumed July 25 date.

Nevertheless, Kurdish officials' efforts were for naught as the IHEC rejected their demands.

Two days after the IHEC's rejection, on July 9, enraged lame-duck Kurdish parliamentarians had to give in to the fait accompli. They voted to delay the referendum but did not set a new date, raising speculation that due to outside pressure they may not want to pursue it for a while to come.

During the session, Kurdish parliamentary speaker Adnan Mufti voiced his suspicions of interference in the IHEC's work by Maliki's government and implicitly accused the US of playing a role.

More signs of US involvement are emerging as Admiral Michael Mullen, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the US military, visited Kirkuk on Monday with the aim of urging Kurds, Arabs and Turkomans there to reach a power-sharing agreement. The US had been widely criticized in the recent months for not doing enough to settle disputes among Iraqi factions, especially Kurds and Arabs.

Joost Hiltermann of the International Crisis Group (ICG) believes that unilateral decisions by Kurdish leaders such as the draft constitution were partly due to US reluctance to throw heavier diplomatic weight behind efforts to address the ethnic problems in the country.

But Biden's very new central role to steer US policy in Iraq, he says, shows that "Obama's administration means business".

"And his visit to Iraq is a sign that the US is serious in its efforts to broker a deal [on problems between Kurds and Iraqi government]," Hiltermann told Inter Press Service in a phone interview from Jordan.

However, as attempts to forge an agreement intensify, the key question is what kind of a deal is possible and sustainable.

"We proposed a grand bargain on this issue in our most recent report that combines territory with oil and sharing powers between Baghdad and Irbil [the Kurdish capital]," said Hiltermann, referring to a July 8 ICG report. "These issues cannot be resolved in isolation, they have to be combined as they are really on the ground."

Upcoming polls may further complicate ethnic relations in Iraq. In addition to regional Kurdish elections due in a few weeks, Iraq's national elections will be held next January. If the current deadlock is to be broken, some argue, politicians in Iraq need to avoid inflammatory remarks and think outside election cycles.

"The game so far is to drag their feet and appear uncompromising but at the end there is a realization that things need to be brought to the negotiation table," said Scott Carpenter, an expert at Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "They know if problems aggravate, there will be real difficulties and that will not be in anybody's interest."

Carpenter believes the Balkans should stand as a stark lesson to Iraqi policymakers.

"People need to look at Sarajevo and what happened in Serbia and Bosnia," he said, referring to the bloody ethnic conflicts in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. "You don't want this and if you really believe that way, then leaders have to stand up and avoid more tensions."