Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper, a London-based Arab daily, has published today that Kurds, Arabs and Turkmen –the main national communities in the Iraqi Kirkuk province– have reached an agreement to share out official power posts. According to the arrangement, a member of the Kurdish community – the main ethnic group in the region– will hold the office of district governor, while an Arab will be appointed as vice-governor and a Turkmen will be assigned the presidency of Kirkuk’s city council.

At the end of 2007 a deal was made establishing a 32% representation quota for each of the three majority ethnic groups, and the remaining 4% for the Christian minority. The agreement, though, was never implemented.

This is a first step forward, since it clearly outlines the power quota for the next provincial elections to be held at the end of March. However, the agreement does not refer to the key issue of the Kirkuk conflict, that is to say, whether the city will remain as part of Baghdad-led Iraq or join the Autonomous Region of Kurdistan, an issue the Kurds want to be decided in a referendum. Historically, Kirkuk has always been a Kurdish city, and even today Kurds are majority. Saddam Hussein settled Arabs in the district in order to reduce the percentage of Kurdish population, while thousands of Kurds, Turkmen and Caldeo-Assyrians –the so-called Christian minority– were forced out from the city between 1991 and 2003. Kirkuk’s natural resources are the main reason why Arabs and Turkmen are reluctant to give up the district in favour of Iraqi Kurdistan.

Several politicians and analysts have highlighted in the last week the risk of an armed conflict escalating in the city if the conflict is not settled soon. Nechirvan Barzani, prime minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government, has requested Washington to intercede in the dispute. He has also admitted that Kurds and Arabs have not yet resorted to violence because US troops are still deployed in the region. The Kurdish administration wants the US to put pressure on the Iraqi prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, so that the dispute is settled before US forces withdraw.

Meanwhile, Henri Barkey, analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for Peace, states in a publication that "the first priority for the United States is to work towards rebuilding trust and preventing Kirkuk from becoming a flashpoint".

Further information:

• Courrier international: Un accord sur Kirkouk enfin trouvé
• AP: US must resolve Kurdish issues before pullout: Barzani
• Nationalia:Situation on Kirkuk gets murky as referendum on the region's future gets delayed by months