Newspaper: The Sudanese government is facing a "difficult test" in managing the Kirkuk oil file

POSTED ON[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] BY [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

[size=52]Newspaper: The Sudanese government is facing a "difficult test" in managing the Kirkuk oil file[/size]

[size=45][You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
The Independent Arabic newspaper published a report on what it described as the “difficult test” facing the government of Prime Minister Muhammad Shia’ al-Sudani, who assumed his duties two months ago, represented in managing the Kurdish oil file, while pointing out that the oil of the Kirkuk governorate represents a “mine” in the way of understandings. between Baghdad and Erbil.[/size]
[size=45]The newspaper stated in a report: “Amid cautious optimism, the governments of Baghdad and the Kurdistan region entered a new chapter of negotiations aimed at untangling their accumulated differences due to the discrepancy in the interpretation of the articles of the constitution and the absence of solutions to a settlement in a country that has been suffering for two decades from political conflict and a state of polarization imposed by its ethnically and sectarianly diverse population.” .[/size]
[size=45]And she added: “In addition to the dispute over the Kurds’ share in the federal budget, the dispute comes over the formula for managing Kurdish oil, as the file of Article 140 of the constitution related to settling the conflict over conflict areas between the two sides, most notably the oil-rich Kirkuk governorate, represents one of the intractable files, as a result of Arabs and Turkmen fears of its annexation to the Kurdish region.[/size]
[size=45]And she indicated: “These concerns have recently increased in light of the talk about the Shiite “coordinating framework” alliance close to Iran concluding a bargain with the Kurds, which led to the formation of the new federal government headed by Muhammad Shia’a al-Sudani.[/size]
[size=45]Difficult labour[/size]
[size=45]And the journalist continued: “According to these data, the Sudanese government is facing a difficult test in terms of the possibility of finding a balanced solution formula as long as the successive Iraqi governments failed to settle it, especially since the Arab and Turkmen parties strongly reject the Kurdish aspirations to annex Kirkuk to the Kurdistan region, and adhere to its demand to make the province a region belonging to the government.” Baghdad".[/size]
[size=45]She pointed out that "the Kurds claim that they were subjected in Kirkuk and most of the conflict areas to a systematic campaign of Arabization during the previous regime, while the Turkmen, Arabs and Kurds are accused of waging a counter-campaign to Kurdify their areas after the fall of the regime in 2003 by bringing citizens from the region and residing in them."[/size]
[size=45]And she explained that “the announcement of the reinstatement of Article 140, last week, following a meeting of the leaders of the “State Administration Coalition,” which constitutes the parliamentary majority and includes the main Kurdish and Shiite forces close to Iran, with the exception of the Sadrist movement, and the Sunnis, sparked strong objection from Turkmen and Arab forces.[/size]
[size=45]There is no solution without consensus[/size]
[size=45]It quoted a member of the Kirkuk Council, the leader of the Turkmen Front, Ali Mahdi Sadiq, as saying that “the problem of Kirkuk is complex, since 2003 it has not been resolved through the presence of one or two parties in the administration.”[/size]
[size=45]Sadiq added, "Experience has shown that the crisis cannot be resolved without the agreement of the three parties, Turkmen, Arabs and Kurds, because there are permanent and continuous differences in all joints, and the conclusion of any agreement between Erbil and Baghdad in the absence of one of the parties concerned will not have a result, and this will inevitably be rejected strongly."[/size]
[size=45]Regarding the position of the Kurds getting promises from the “coordinating framework” forces, Sadiq saw that “the Kurds had better agree with the Turkmens first, because they had previously agreed with the leaders of the framework coalition in previous governments without significant results, then they (the Kurds) even if They agreed with the Americans without the Turkmens, they will not get anything, because the experiment of imposing unilateral control failed repeatedly.[/size]
[size=45]And he stressed, “No objection to the application of Article 140 without violations, but the Kurdish brothers brought citizens from outside the residents of Kirkuk, and seized the property of others, and if they brag about the issue of Arabization, then it is not permissible for them to practice Kurdization at the expense of the Turkmen.”[/size]
[size=45]The newspaper warned that “Article 140 is concerned with resolving the problem of the areas that were subjected to demographic change during the rule of former President Saddam Hussein, through three stages, which are normalization and conducting a census before holding a referendum to determine their fate, whether by remaining within the administration of the federal government or joining the Kurdistan region.” However, the stages of its implementation faltered as a result of the political and security crises that afflicted the country over the past two decades.[/size]
[size=45]Keys to solutions[/size]
[size=45]Sadiq put forward “a solution that satisfies the Turkmen component, which is to find a consensual formula for administration through the United Nations Mission,” and asked why this tension was raised again as long as the federal forces proved their effectiveness by not having any security breach in the center of the province.[/size]
[size=45]And he added that the Turkmen “have no difficult conditions other than achieving partnership in management between the components, while giving the security file to the federal forces exclusively. take office?”[/size]
[size=45]And the newspaper added: “The view of the Arab population appears to be similar to that of the Turkmen in rejecting the return of the Kurds to the administration of the province according to the previous formula before their withdrawal in the fall of 2017, on the impact of Baghdad taking measures against the Kurdistan region as a punishment for its participation in a referendum for secession.”[/size]
[size=45]Turn back[/size]
[size=45]For his part, Sheikh Burhan Mizrim Al-Asi, a member of the provincial council for the Arab component, says, “The problem is purely political, not social, because we have strong ties with the Kurdish brothers, and it is not easy to disintegrate, but realistically everyone has suffered for a long time from Article 140, which constitutionally expired in 2007. As for the dispute regarding some issues such as the issue of land ownership and others, it can be resolved through the judiciary. It is not possible to rely on the agreement between the governments of Erbil and Baghdad exclusively because it often meets the interests of certain parties at the expense of others.[/size]
[size=45]Al-Assi stressed that "Kirkuk is experiencing good stability, and it seems that there is an attempt to return to square one."[/size]
[size=45]According to the newspaper, politicians and observers believe that “political conflicts have always prevented successive governments from resolving the file, as the Shiite and Sunni forces refuse to grant the Kurds the majority in these areas, especially Kirkuk, at the expense of the weight of the Arabs and Turkmen who cling to remaining under the control of the federal government, and therefore the The forces in Baghdad may not go far in bargaining with the Kurds except over files of lesser importance, such as allowing the Democratic Party to reopen its headquarters and granting administrative positions to the Kurdish forces, as well as deploying joint military and security forces to fill the security vacuums, which means that the dispute is over the core points over the application of Article In fact, it will continue.[/size]
[size=45]insistence on refusal[/size]
[size=45]Al-Assi asked about “the significance of the attempts to return Kurdish security forces or services to Kirkuk, even though they enjoy the rule of law, while areas in the Kurdistan region are still in need of Kurdish forces more than the province needs, because the region in which foreign forces are confronted has security tensions over Borders with Iran and Turkey, and it suffers from internal disputes.[/size]
[size=45]Based on this vision, Al-Assi ruled out “the return of the country or Kirkuk to the situation created by the circumstances after 2003, when the American forces came and the Kurdish forces entered with them, and even the Kurdish citizen in the province has changed, and now everyone is looking for stability to secure their interests and guarantee their livelihood.”[/size]
[size=45]He concluded by saying that “Article 140 failed to achieve any progress for about two decades, because it was found to create strife, otherwise what does it mean to raise issues that are decades old? For example, my father and grandparents owned vast agricultural enclaves. ?”[/size]
[size=45]The newspaper pointed out that this “comes at a time when Kurdish media are talking about a heavy deployment of security forces (Kurdish neighborhoods only), and reported that these forces carry out night operations in the neighborhoods and set up checkpoints during the day, which called on the Kurdish forces in the province to demand the President of the Republic, Abdul Latif Rashid, to intervene to stop the constitutional and legal violations that are being practiced against the residents of Kirkuk, especially the Kurds, to end the militarization of the province, to stop discrimination between its neighborhoods and regions in terms of administration, to hand over security to the local police from among the people of the province, and to remove the army and the popular crowd forces.[/size]
[size=45]Avoiding acknowledging the majority[/size]
[size=45]And the newspaper continued: “On the other hand, the Kurds deny the allegations that the deadline for implementing the article has expired by a decision issued by the Federal Supreme Court in 2019, “because it is still in effect until the implementation of its main paragraphs is completed,” according to a member of the Parliamentary Regions and Provinces Committee of the “Kurdistan Democratic Party” bloc, Sherwan Al-Dobardani, Who stressed "the importance of implementing the constitution without selectivity, not as some political forces want."[/size]
[size=45]Al-Dobardani says that “thousands of Arabs, before the Kurds, received compensation through some steps to implement the article, and it is strange that the process of compensating those affected continued in the central and southern regions, while it was suspended in conflict areas.”[/size]
[size=45]He asked, “Why is the fear of the demand to annex Kirkuk to the region as long as the people of the province will choose their fate through an official referendum? Doesn’t this indicate that the Kurds constitute the majority? Moreover, this is not a separation, as long as the region is part of Iraq, the issue does not go beyond being administrative.[/size]
[size=45]The newspaper pointed out that “it is worth mentioning that the head of the Turkmen parliamentary bloc, Arshad al-Salihi, accused the main Kurdish forces, after the decision to reactivate the article, of “seeking to control the oil of the Kirkuk governorate, although the article failed to achieve anything after 20 years,” warning that the decision “ It would ignite absurd wars and tear the unity of the social fabric.”[/size]
[size=45]Tumbled out of will[/size]
[size=45]Regarding the position on Al-Salhi’s statements, Al-Dobardani said that it is “a political bidding that is usually launched with every occasion to inflame the emotions of citizens, then the failure to implement the article had objective reasons, and not as Al-Salhi indicated that it failed due to its futility, as the country went through a sectarian war that tore the Iraqi fabric and the situation Security in general, and then the occupation of a third of the country by ISIS, and then the emergence of the Corona pandemic, and we see today that the conditions are suitable for its implementation.[/size]
[size=45]In the contents of the formula for the return of the Kurds to Kirkuk, Al-Dobardani explained that it “is related to reopening the headquarters of our party, which withdrew in protest against the entry of the army and the Popular Mobilization Forces in the events of 2017, and today it has the right, like any political party, to regain its headquarters from the forces that occupy it today. Within the agreements, there are joint forces, and the 20th Brigade was formed to fill the security gaps between the region and Baghdad. Al-Dobardani expressed his surprise at the Arabs and Turkmen fears of the return of the Peshmerga and the Kurdish security services to the province, saying, “Aren't the Peshmerga constitutionally part of the Iraqi defense system?”[/size]
[size=45]However, the former head of the “Article 140 Committee,” Raed Fahmy, acknowledged in press statements that the political forces “lack the will to proceed with the implementation of the paragraphs of the article beyond the stage of normalization, because the rest of the stages are shrouded in ambiguity.[/size]
[size=45][You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]