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Iraqi Kurds agree to postpone key vote on oil city
ARBIL, Iraq - The Kurdish regional government in north Iraq has agreed to delay by six months the referendum on the future of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, easing immediate tensions among the mixed population.Nechirvan Barzani, prime minister of the autonomous Kurdish government, told AFP that his government favoured postponing the vote. The regional government is in favour of this extension, said Barzani after meeting in the central city of Najaf with the Shias most influential cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani. According to article 140 of the Iraqi constitution, the referendum had been due to be held by the end of 2007 to decide whether the region with its oil wealth should go under the control of the autonomous Kurdish government. Barzani said the vote had been delayed for technical reasons. He added that the six-month extension should be used for a UN-supervised mechanism to sort out the issue of Kirkuk, which sits on the second-largest oil and gas reserves in Iraq. The Kurdish parliament, which heard UN special envoy Staffan de Mistura support a six-month postponement, should soon ratify such a delay, MPs said. Your reaction should be dictated by reason and not by passion, de Mistura told parliament. If not, everyone will suffer the consequences of it. Adnan Al Mufti, spokesman for the Kurdish parliament, described the idea of an extension as positive. But he told fellow MPs: You have the last word. Posted by: Steve White 2007-12-18 |
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