Sunday, March 13, 2005

According to radio Sawa and Iraq Net, the negotiations between the "United Iraqi Coalition" and the "Kurdish Alliance" have collapsed this afternoon.
The prominent Coalition figure Ahmed Chalabi explained the reasons for the failure of the negotiations in an interview on Al-Sharqiya TV. He blamed the Kurdish leaderships for this failure describing their demands as "unrealistic".
These demands were (as Chalabi stated):

-25% of the Nation's income goes to the Kurdish cities (3 provinces-if we exclude Kirkuk-out of 18 provinces).

-The Peshmarga (around 100 000 fighters) remain under command of the Kurdistan regional government not the central defense ministry and that those fighters shall not be asked to operate in other regions.

-The cost of keeping those 100 000 fighters should be provided by the central government.

-The Iraqi Army has no right to enter the Kurdish areas without permission from the regional government.

-The 75 Kurdish members of the elected national assembly should have the veto right over the rest of the assembly.


Till now, no official statement came from the Kurdish politicians to confirm or discredit the statement of Chalabi. However, one member of the Kurdish list appeared on Al-Hurra TV and didn't disapprove the news.

This news has come 3 days before the 16th of March that was expected to witness the declaration of the new government and if these statements of Chalabi were true then I guess that the Kurdish leaders have gone way too far in their demands.

I have always sympathized with the Kurds for what they have suffered from under the Ba'ath regime; all Iraqis were victims for that murderous regime and the Kurds have relatively suffered more than some other segments but this is all gone and now we're looking forward to building a new Iraq void of ethnic and sectarin differences and when it comes to disrupting the national unity in a critical time like this then such stubbornness is totally unacceptable especially when the demands are not that urgent.

I prefer not to talk anymore about this and I don't like to judge anyone until more details are disclosed but generally speaking, our politicians seem to have a lot more left to learn.
They have lived and operated as an opposition for a very long time and the time has come for them to learn how to think and behave as leaders.

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