January 31st, 2008 by Nicolas

In the USIP briefing, entitled “Iraq: Politics Unfrozen, Direction Still Unclear,” Daniel Serwer and Rend al-Rahim measure the postive political progress of Iraq and make recommendations for imrovement. There is a  “broad acceptance of the new constitutional regime,” yet, “despite these positive developments, many obstacles remain, and there is little time in which to surmount them, given the American pressures for continuing withdrawal.”

Nazar Janabi from the Washington Institute for Near Easy Policy, writes that the Sunnis and Shiites are ”testing the waters of reconciliation in the Iraqi parliament” with “Article 140” that would increase the central government’s control over Kirkuk’s oil. This might come at the cost of escalating “anti-Kurdish sentiment among many Arab parliamentarians, costing the Kurds some of the hard-earned political ground they have gained thus far.” He warns that this agreement “could turn into a violent contest” between the Baghdad and Kirkuk.

Posted in Iraq, Kurds |