BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The Erbil Agreement signed between the Kurdish government and Baghdad following Iraq’s general elections in 2010 has become the main cause of tension between the Kurdistan Region and the central government.
Kurdish officials backed Prime Minister Nuri Maliki to form a government on the condition that he would implement Article 140 with regards to the disputed territories, pass a new oil and gas law and consult with all parties on decision-making.
Two years on, the Kurds, as well as Iraq’s Sunni leaders, say Maliki has ignored the agreement and acts as an authoritarian ruler.
Political analyst Abdul Sultan believes that the Iraqiya bloc of former Prime Minister Ayad Alawi is paying the price for concessions it made to Maliki.
"The Iraqiya bloc offered many concessions in order to participate in the political process and it has been hurt by those concessions,” he says. “Now it is left with no cards to play."
At the same time, PM Maliki’s State of Law Coalition says that most of the terms of the Erbil Agreement have been implemented and a new agreement is now needed.
“Iraq needs broader agreements to resolve all the problems between the Kurdistan Region and Baghdad not covered by the Erbil Agreement, such as the oil and gas law and other important laws,” said Jawad Albazoni, a member of the State of Law Coalition.
The political tension, particularly between Iraqiya and Maliki’s bloc, has reached a point where Iraqi President Jalal Talabani has called for a national convention to find a solution.
But university professor Khairalla Sadi al-Baidani believes the convention will solve nothing.
“Holding this national convention will not change the stances of the political blocs,” he says. “It is obvious, the Iraqiya bloc is the loser in this struggle and the government wins.”
“No convention will be successful without enforcing the terms of the Erbil Agreement,” added al-Baidani.
Different parties, among them President Talabani and, most recently, U.S. President Barak Obama, have urged Iraq’s political leaders to meet and solve their dispute through dialogue. But Asaad Jabbar, a lecturer at al-Mustansiriya University in Baghdad, says the constitution is the only legal means of solving the problems between the rivals.
“Political settlements outside the constitution will eventually accumulate and explode to create a new crisis,” he says. “This is obvious with the Erbil Agreement as it contained some unconstitutional terms that led the State of Law Coalition to refuse its implementation.”
Meanwhile, some Iraqi MPs complain that they still don’t know what the Erbil Agreement contains and haven’t seen a copy.
The national convention, which was due to be held last week, has once again been postponed due to the ongoing political disputes.
Leaders of the Iraqiya bloc have several conditions for participation in the convention, among them the implementation of the Erbil Agreement, an end to arrest campaigns against their members by the police and an end to interference in the judicial system.
Rudaw
