Crisis between Kurdish leadership and Baghdad almost solved

Erbil - Following weeks of heated disputes between Baghdad and the Kurdish leadership in the semi-autonomous region, tensions are easing, according to Kurdish politicians.
The crisis was solved when Iraqi Parliament Speaker Osama Nujaifi met Kurdish President Massoud Barzani and both agreed to find a solution.

Now a Kurdish delegation that was canceled last week, is going to continue negotiations with the federal government, said Fouad Massoum, a member of the Kurdish Blocs Coalition (KBC) in the Iraqi parliament.

Tensions had risen between Baghdad and the Kurdish government in Erbil after the Kurdistan Region Government (KRG) rejected the new law for the exploitation of oil and gas in the country.

The Kurds believe the new law would allow the federal government to exploit the country's oil wealth at the expense of the Kurdish Region. They also argue that the Ministers Council did not follow the legal process when it approved the law.

Last week, the KRG put negotiations with the federal government in Baghdad on hold until previous agreements were implemented.

Barzani then sent a letter to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in which he reminded Maliki of the political agreements from last year and asked if Maliki is still committed to these agreements.

The Kurds played kingmaker after parliamentary elections in the March 2010 when they lent support to the current Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. Maliki had run second in the elections behind Sunni-backed leader Ayad Allawi, but thanks to Kurdish support he could still get a majority for his government

Back then, the Kurds presented a list of 19 demands to Maliki who agreed on all but one that would have deemed the government illegitimate if the Kurds withdraw from the government. The content of the remaining 18 demands that both sides agreed on has never been fully disclosed.

However, some of the Kurdish demands were repeatedly articulated in public: the implementation of article 140 into the Iraqi constitution*, drafting a new hydrocarbon law and the integration of the Kurdish defense forces (the Peshmarga) into the Iraqi army, paid for by the Iraqi government.

The Kurds have 57 seats in the Iraqi parliament, 47 of them are organized in the KBC. The Kurds run four ministries in Maliki's government, in addition to the deputy prime minister post.

*Article 140 of the constitution would make provisions for the payment of reparations to Kurds forced from their homes under Saddam Hussein, a comprehensive census of ethnic groups and a referendum to decide if disputed areas should fall under the control of Kurdistan Regional Government.