Foreign oil deal renews debate on Kurd autonomy


By Cyrille Cartier, Special for USA TODAY - Fri Dec 9, 2005


The semiautonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq has struck a deal with a foreign oil company to drill for oil in a mountainous region just outside this town. Kurdish leaders hope the new oil well will spur further exploration in the area and tighten the regional government's control over its oil wealth.


  

Iraq: Bush's Islamic Republic


Volume 52, Number 13 · August 11, 2005

By Peter W. Galbraith

On June 4, Jalal Talabani, president of Iraq, attended the inauguration of the Kurdistan National Assembly in Erbil, northern Iraq.

  

Iran's war on the Kurds



September 12, 2007 | By AMIR TAHERI

FOR the last year at least, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the back bone of the Islamic Republic in Iran, has been engaged in a bloody war against Kurdish rebels in four provinces bordering Iraq.
Initially, the authorities in Tehran tried to keep the war a secret, referring to it only occasionally as "operations against evildoers."


  

Kurdish politician responds to military chief



3 octobre 2007 | Ankara

The pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DPT) on Monday responded to a statement by Chief of General Staff Gen. Yaşar Büyükanıt calling for legal measures to stop the DTP, which is represented in Parliament.

  

The New Iraqi Government: Who's Who


THE NEW IRAQI GOVERNMENT


IBRAHIM JAAFARI: PRIME MINISTER
Ibrahim Jaafari, a 58-year-old physician, was spokesman for the Islamic Daawa Party, one of Iraq's oldest political parties. Born in Karbala in 1947, he was educated at Mosul university as a medical doctor. He lived in Iran and UK from the 1980s until the fall of Saddam Hussein. When he was serving in the mainly ceremonial role of vice-president in the US-appointed interim regime, an opinion poll last year suggested Mr Jaafari was Iraq's most popular politician. Mr Jaafari is widely seen as a unifying figure, keen to bring Sunni Arabs into the democratic fold after their widespread absence from election polling stations.
Posted: 05/09 - From: BBC

  

The Kurds Ascending: The Evolving Solution to the Kurdish Problem in Iraq and Turkey



April 10, 2008 | Michael Gunter

Michael M. Gunter offered a brief overview of his new book titled The Kurds Ascending, which discussed the recent events that improved the Kurdish situation in Iraq and Turkey. He mainly attributed positive developments in Kurdish rights to the US wars against Saddam Husayn, and Turkey’s successful EU candidacy along with Justice and Development (AK) Party reforms within Turkey.


  

Kurdish leader against sectarian domination of new Iraq government


ARBIL, Iraq, Feb 10 (AFP) - 16h16 - Kurdish leader Massud Barzani spoke out Thursday against any one of Iraq's ethnic and religious groups dominating the country's new government, following talks with interim prime minister Iyad Allawi.

  

FIVE years on, it seems positively surreal



March 16, 2008 | War Torn | Five Years | By JOHN F. BURNS | LONDON

On the evening of March 19, 2003, a small group of Western journalists had grandstand seats for the big event in Baghdad, the start of the full-scale American bombing of strategic targets in the Iraqi capital. We had forced a way through a bolted door at the top of an emergency staircase leading to the 21st-story roof of the Palestine Hotel, with a panoramic view of Saddam Hussein’s command complex across the Tigris River.


  

Kurdish part of Iraq calm for now


 By Aamer Madhani
Tribune staff reporter
Published November 9, 2006, 7:47 PM CST

IRBIL, Iraq -- The skyline in this northern Iraqi boomtown is a mosaic of half-built concrete retail centers, sparkling new hotels and giant earthmovers and cranes working overtime. The cafe-lined streets buzz late into the night.

  

Iraq president says deal with some rebels possible


  SUNDAY, APRIL 30, 2006
 
 
BAGHDAD Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said on Sunday he had met insurgents and a deal to end violence could be reached with some groups.