Thread: Iraqis 'more upbeat about future'

There are unfortunately many internal and external forces that can cause instability in Iraq. One of them is the Sunni Kurdish divide.

Wave of suicide bombings shows Kurdish-Sunni split

Mar 24, 2009 [McClatchy News Service] BAGHDAD -- A suicide bomber attacked mourners at a Kurdish funeral in a town north of Baghdad, killing at least 25 and injuring at least 45 in the worst of a series of four bombings around Iraq Monday.

Altogether, 37 people were killed and 60 were wounded in the attacks.

The violence reflects rising tensions between Iraq's Kurds and Sunni Muslim Arabs. ...

Some U.S. officials fear that if the tensions escalate into more widespread ethnic and sectarian violence, they could upset a U.S.-Iraqi agreement of the status of American forces in Iraq, Iraqi elections later this year and the Obama administration's plans to redeploy thousands of U.S. troops from Iraq to Afghanistan. ...

Arabs-Kurd Tensions Could Threaten Iraq's Peace

Mar 24, 2009 Mosul [Time] Even as Iraq's ruptured Sunni-Shi'ite divide appears to be tenuously mending, another seam in the country's patchwork multi-ethnic and sectarian society is on the verge of unraveling. Territorial disputes between Arabs and Kurds — in the provinces of Nineveh, Kirkuk and Diyala — now pose a serious risk of violence.

In recent months, longstanding hostility between the two communities has escalated, whipped up by resurgent Arab secular nationalism. At the federal level, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has repeatedly said he wants to strengthen Baghdad's hand at the expense of Iraq's 18 provinces, including Kurdistan — the semi-autonomous three-province Kurdish region in the north — much to the chagrin of the federalist-minded Kurds.

At the provincial level, newly empowered hard-line Sunni groups like Al-Hadba in Mosul, Nineveh's capital, are readying to expand their political clout.

Al-Hadba won 19 of the provincial council's 37 seats during elections in January, running on an anti-Kurdish platform in the volatile, still-violent, mixed but predominantly Sunni province. Its victory was a realignment of power away from the minority Kurds who held disproportionate sway due to a Sunni electoral boycott in 2005. However, it has also set the stage for a showdown between the two groups. ...

With US's Iraq withdrawal dates and plan announced, and tension raised over 45 killed by bombings in Iraq, in the meantime, the new Ambassador to Iraq still cannot get confirmation by Congress.

Top brass disturbed by GOP stalling of Iraq ambassador

Mar 18, 2009 [ForeignPolicy] There's one as yet unremarked constituency increasingly disturbed by some Republican senators' efforts to block the confirmation of former North Korea envoy Christopher Hill to be the next U.S. ambassador to Iraq: the U.S. military.

Sources tell The Cable that Centcom commander Gen. David Petraeus, top Iraq commander Gen. Raymond Odierno, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates are frustrated by the delay in getting a U.S. ambassador confirmed and into place in Iraq, and support Hill's confirmation proceeding swiftly. ...

Since the previous ambassador, Ryan Crocker, left the job Feb. 13, Odierno has complained of doing double duty: serving as the commanding general and the de facto ambassador.

The power vacuum in Baghdad comes at a critical juncture in Iraq's transition, sources noted.

The U.S. mission is becoming increasingly focused on political stabilization and economic development over military missions; Arab-Kurd tensions are rising in the north; struggles for dominance within and across sectarian groups are heating up in the aftermath of January's provincial elections; the Baghdad government is facing tough budget choices due to declining oil prices; and national elections that will determine whether Iraq can consolidate its democracy are due by year's end. ...

These seem good developments in the important relations with the neighbor Turkey.

Turkey improves ties with Iraq

March 25 (Reuters) - President Abdullah Gul has been on a visit to Iraq, the first by a Turkish head of state since 1976, consolidating relations with Iraqi leaders and seeking closer relations with Iraq's largely autonomous Kurdistan region.

Here are some details on recent Turkish relations with Iraq and of Turkey's incursions into northern Iraq in pursuit of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels seeking a homeland in southeastern Turkey.

POLITICS

-- On Tuesday Gul met Kurdish Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani for talks in Baghdad, the first time a Turkish leader agreed to meet formally an official from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), which has enjoyed de facto autonomy from Iraq since 1991.

-- Gul said he recognised the Kurdistan Regional Government and the use of the term "Kurdistan" as legitimate as it was written in the Iraqi Constitution. Acknowledging the existence of the KRG and particularly "Kurdistan" has been taboo among Turkish politicians mindful of reigniting Kurdish hopes o statehood on Turkish soil.

-- Gul also met Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and President Jalal Talabani, himself a Kurd.

-- Ties have been strained between Baghdad and Ankara over the PKK, but in July 2008, a visit to Iraq by Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan began a significant thaw in relations. Ties between Ankara and the KRG has been particularly strained but both sides said they were keen to improve ties.

TRADE:

-- Gul's visit also focused on economic links, particularly in the energy sector. Turkish firms and products dominate northern Iraq's economy.

-- Turkey and Iraq are now major trading partners and some 400,000 barrels of Iraqi oil a day -- more than a fifth of its exports -- are piped through the Turkish port of Ceyhan.

-- Last November Turkish state firms Botas and TPAO and global energy company Royal Dutch Shell announced they had formed a natural gas exploration and marketing partnership in Iraq.

NORTHERN IRAQ:

-- In Oct. 2008 Turkey's parliament approved a request to extend a mandate to launch army operations against PKK Kurdish rebels in north Iraq, days after a cross-border attack killed 17 Turkish soldiers.

-- In January, Turkey, Iraq and the United States also agreed to set up a command centre in north Iraq to coordinate efforts against the PKK. ...