Kurdish members of Iraqi Temporary Governing Council yesterday announced that they would retire from the administration because the United Nations (UN) Security Council's new Resolution on Iraq contains no mention of the interim Constitution that recognizes Kurdish autonomy.
Iraqi Interim Government Minister of Labor Nesrin Bervari confirmed that Iraqi Kurds might withdraw from the Iraqi administration because the UN Resolution disappointed them. Bervari, supported by Iraqi Kurdish leaders Celal Talabani and Mesud Barzani, said, "All of our efforts have been wasted. We saw how democracy could be usurped. The U.S. disappointed us. If our leaders want, we will retire."
...In reply, U.N. diplomats told Zebari that the Resolution did not include a reference to the interim Constitution because if it had, Shiite leader Ayetollah Ali Sistani would have withdrawn his support. Sistani had previously warned the U.N. Security Council not to legitimize the interim Constitution.
Zaman article
Iraqi Interim Government Minister of Labor Nesrin Bervari confirmed that Iraqi Kurds might withdraw from the Iraqi administration because the UN Resolution disappointed them. Bervari, supported by Iraqi Kurdish leaders Celal Talabani and Mesud Barzani, said, "All of our efforts have been wasted. We saw how democracy could be usurped. The U.S. disappointed us. If our leaders want, we will retire."
...In reply, U.N. diplomats told Zebari that the Resolution did not include a reference to the interim Constitution because if it had, Shiite leader Ayetollah Ali Sistani would have withdrawn his support. Sistani had previously warned the U.N. Security Council not to legitimize the interim Constitution.
So we've dumped on our Kurd allies in favor of placating the Shi'ite cleric.
From Ahmed Karadaghi, a Kurdish freelance writer currently living in Canada:
I believe that lack of interest in the Kurdish cause and the lack of respect for the Kurdish leaders will backfire in the face of the Bush administration and their coalition partners. They started this wrong and now they seem to be ending this wrong. Most importantly, the Kurds are the only allies the Americans have in the region, Kurdish leaders and their political parties have been a pillar of support for the US chief administrator in Iraq, L Paul Bremer, and coalition forces in Iraq. To put them up in a corner and turn your back on them is political suicide for the coalition. We pray someone in the Bush administration will acknowledge that before it is too late.
Asia Times article
Reuters, whom I'm learning to distrust these days, has this headline: Talabani Gives Cautious Backing to Iraq Resolution, with the following supposed reason for it:
Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani gave a cautious welcome to a U.N. resolution on Iraq's future, despite earlier threats to quit the interim government over the document's failure to recognize Kurdish autonomy.
"We are happy that the Security Council resolution mentioned federalism, but we regret that it did not mention the Kurdish people," Talabani told a television station run by his Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party late on Wednesday.
"We are happy that the Security Council resolution mentioned federalism, but we regret that it did not mention the Kurdish people," Talabani told a television station run by his Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party late on Wednesday.
That's not exactly support. Although you could, if you were a Pollyanna optimist, see the "happy" part and take it from there.
Juan Cole's current post on the matter is titled Kurdish Anger Rising...
The Associated Press reports substantial Kurdish anger in Iraq over the failure of the UN Security Council resolution on Iraq's caretaker government to provide any guarantees of protection of the minority rights of the Kurds. A senior UN official said off the record that he hoped "it will not develop into anything ugly." Key quotes from Kurdish leaders:
He goes on to quote some of the Kurds, and despite Reuters' rosy bent, they don't sound happy at all.
Something ugly this way comes.
