August 4th, 2008 by Sarah

An emergency session of the Iraqi Parliament planned for this past weekend in order to settle disagreements over the provincial election law was cancelled. Juan Cole summarizes the situation simply. “No provincial election law means, probably, no provincial elections this year. No oil law. No significant Shiite-Sunni reconciliation. Politics gridlocked in Iraq.”

Meanwhile, Kurdish members have called for the oil-rich city of Kirkuk to be annexed to the nearby Kurdistan Regional Authority, a move that was vehemently rejected by the city’s Turkmen and Arabs.

An editorial, in the International Herald Tribune strongly opposes the annexation of Kirkuk, and blames the U.S. and Kurds for not seriously looking for political compromise.  “Compromises on Kirkuk are theoretically possible, but only the UN seems to be seriously trying to find one.”

A New York Times editorial agrees.

And Helena Cobban in The Christian Science Monitor argues that only the U.N. can mobilize the global resources, the non-military tools, and expertise necessary to sort out the political divisions in Iraq. However, for the U.N. to be successful, Cobban argues that U.S. must form a “strong, new compact” with the U.N. after “Washington’s deep estrangement” in recent years.

Posted in Elections, Iraq, Kurds, Sectarianism, US foreign policy, United Nations |