BAGHDAD: Iraqi leaders yesterday remained deadlocked in talks over a power-sharing dispute that is blocking US-backed provincial elections. The disagreement over the oil-rich city of Kirkuk forced parliamentary officials to delay a planned vote on the provincial elections bill until today, at the earliest.
Kurds object to a measure that would equally distribute provincial council seats among Arabs, Kurds and Turkomen in Tamim province, which lies just south of their own semiautonomous region in Iraq’s north.
Kurds and their allies already hold a majority on the provincial council, and fear the power-sharing proposal would dilute their power. Despite pressure from American and UN officials, high-level talks have so far failed to resolve the impasse, lawmakers said.
The Parliament had hoped to hold a vote during a special session Sunday. But the session never convened, because party and legislative leaders could not agree on a formula that would satisfy Arab, Kurdish and Turkomen demands.
Deputy parliamentary Speaker Khalid Al-Attiyah said lawmakers would meet again today to “vote for a supplementary budget and the election law if an agreement can be reached.”
The issue of Kirkuk, the center of Iraq’s vast northern oil fields, has emerged as a litmus test for the ability of Iraq’s ethnic and sectarian leaders to compromise on critical issues in the interest of national reconciliation.
Meanwhile, roadside bombs yesterday killed two US soldiers and at least nine Iraqis in Baghdad and surrounding areas, officials said. The Americans died in a blast near a highway in the predominantly Shiite New Baghdad district, police said.
The area was the site of fierce clashes between US-Iraqi forces and the Mehdi Army militia before a cease-fire by Moqtada Sadr. Another US soldier was wounded in the attack around 10 a.m. in eastern Baghdad, the US military said. It gave no further details on the deaths.
The deadliest attack yesterday was against an Iraqi police patrol vehicle in Mahaweel, about 60 kilometers south of Baghdad that killed four policemen and three civilian bystanders, according to Iraqi police.
