Barzani Warns Maliki To Not Repeat Experience of Last Four Years | Namo Abdulla

By NAMO ABDULLA RUDAW – ERBIL, Iraqi Kurdistan: Massoud Barzani, president of the federal region of Kurdistan, was proudly talking to local reporters Friday that his initiative, which had broken the nearly eight-month political deadlock, brought a great success to the Kurds in an Arab-dominated Iraq.

As he landed in the Erbil airport from Baghdad, Barzani said that no one including the United States, regional countries and anti-Kurdish political parties in Iraq were able to force Kurds to back down on their assertive demands including that of presidency.

As a result, he said Nuri Maliki, reappointed prime minister of Iraq, was backed by Kurds because he had agreed to all the 19 Kurdish demands including asking for more political, economic and military power, for the autonomous region of Kurdistan. “Yesterday was finished with triumph and ascendancy for the Kurds,” said Barzani referring to Thursday’s session of the Iraq’s assembly in which Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, was re-elected president after a Kurdish-initiated deal was reached among Iraq’s political parties. Talabani’s retaining of position was a Kurdish triumph over those Arabs who still view Kurds as “second-class citizens,” said Barzani, who used to fight against the Ba’ath regime of the former authoritarian ruler, Saddam Hussein, for Kurdish rights in the 1970s and 1980s.

“There are people who see us as shoe cleaners,” added Barzani without specifically pointing to any group.

But he said that the Kurds are equal to Arabs not Sunni or Shiites when it comes to distributing resources in Iraq.”It is about a national matter,” said Barzani. “All of them together are Arabs, whether they are Shiites or Sunni. And we are Kurds,” said Barzani.

“Each list cannot have the same right as Kurds,”

Kurds have clearly reaped at least a theoretical benefit from their kingmaker”s position, but a practical achievement for Kurds, which would include the occupation of some key government positions, is unclear and possible to complicate the process in which Maliki is supposed to form a government in 30 days” time.

Answering a question asked by Rudaw, Barzani warned Maliki to turn a new page in Kurdish-Arab ties that would not look like the precarious and even tense one the two nations had in the last four years.

During his previous term, the Shiite prime minister was reluctant to put many words that he pledged to Kurds into deeds.”The last four years should serve as a lesson for all of us that the next four years should not be the same,” said Barzani, adding that the Kurds now have an increasingly powerful role to play not only in Iraq but also in the region and the world.

But the increase of Kurdish leverage could also mean further uncertainty to Iraq’s future as Maliki is supposed to implement some Kurdish requirements regarding disputed territories that Iraqiya, which has shown a hesitant interest in participating in the new government after its Osama Nujaifi was elected speaker of the parliament Thursday, is bitterly opposed.