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Iraq Kurds renounce support of key oil law
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Chicago Tribune - [7/13/2007]
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Kurdish leaders spoke out Wednesday against a key oil law, raising further doubts over efforts to pass one of the political benchmarks sought by the U.S. at a time when the Bush administration is trying to fend off critics of its Iraq policy.
The oil bill and other benchmarks are aimed at encouraging the Sunni Arab minority to support the government and turn away from the insurgency, easing violence over the long-term. The oil law at the center of debate now is part of a package to regulate the industry and distribute its profits, aiming to address Sunni fears of being squeezed out of the wealth by Iraq's dominant Shiites and the Kurds.
But attempts to pass the bill have been blocked by multiple disputes within Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's coalition, including a boycott of parliament by his Sunni Arab partners.
The Kurds made clear Wednesday they oppose the latest draft of the bill, which al-Maliki said on July 3 had been approved unanimously by his Cabinet. His aides say the draft was passed after changes were made to an earlier version Kurds had said they supported.
The top oil official in the Kurds' northern autonomous zone rejected those changes. The amendments "reduce the powers of the [Kurdish] region and should not be approved," the zone's Natural Resource Minister Ashti Hawrami said at a joint meeting of the Iraqi and Kurdish regional parliaments in the northern city of Irbil.
Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the amendments to the draft -- which have not been made public -- "were legal and dealt with the language but did not change the core."
Sunni Arabs, who are centered in regions of Iraq without proven oil reserves, are pressing for central control of the industry, fearing that Kurds and Shiites in the oil-rich north and south will control oil contracts and hoard the profits.
In other developments, Iraqi security forces seized 200 explosive belts along the Syrian border Wednesday, a police spokesman said, reinforcing Baghdad's assertions that its western neighbor isn't doing enough to stop the flow of fighters and weapons into Iraq.
The belts were found during a search of a truck that had crossed into Iraq from Syria at the Waleed border station, Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf said.
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