Interview: deputy premier warns of strife over fate of Kirkuk

BAGHDAD: Iraq’s Kurdish deputy prime minister warned Monday that failure to resolve the dispute over the oil-rich city of Kirkuk could result in more strife in the war-ravaged country and accused unnamed parties in the government of preventing a solution.

“We have a choice,” Barham Saleh told The Associated Press in an interview. “We can either turn Kirkuk into an example of national Iraqi unity … or turn it into a battlefield for strife between the components of Iraq.”


He said it was unacceptable to leave the dispute over Kirkuk unresolved and accused parties within the government of Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of trying to stymie a solution spelled out in the 2005 constitution.

“I am a Kurd and see Kirkuk as part of the Kurdish region,” Saleh said, explaining that because Arabs and Turkomen