KurdistanObserver.com

Statement by President of Kurdistan Region on Iraq Study Group

After studying the report prepared by the Iraq Study Group we deem it necessary to issue the following statement.

1) The failure of the Iraq Study Group to visit the Kurdistan Region was a major shortcoming in its information gathering process; this alone detracts from the credibility of the report.

2) In recommendation 26 of the report, the Iraq Study Group asks for a constitutional review, with assistance from the United Nations, any review of the constitution should be strictly in accord with the mechanisms stated in the constitution. We reject any constitutional review outside of the mechanisms created for this purpose within the Iraqi Constitution. The unity of Iraq is preserved by the terms of the Iraqi Constitution.

3) Recommendation 28 of the report states that all oil revenues should accrue to the central government and be shared on the basis of population. It further states that control of oil resources by the regions is not compatible with national reconciliation. On this point we reiterate our commitment to the Iraqi Constitution that has rendered a proper solution to this question and we reject attempts to alter this solution. 

4) Recommendation 30 states the implementation of Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution should be delayed. It further states that this issue should be placed on the agenda of the International Iraq Support Group (an international group the report seeks to create).

The Iraqi constitution defined the time and mechanism for implementing Article 140; a basic right of the Kurdish people. Any delay in the process of the implementation of Article 140 will have grave consequences and will in no way be accepted by the people of the Kurdistan Region.

5) The report argues for strengthening the central government and weakening the power of regions. This contradicts the constitution and the principle of federalism that forms the basis of the new Iraq. We reiterate that federalism is the only solution for maintaining the unity of Iraq.

6) In certain portions of the report the interests and concerns of neighboring countries have been taken into consideration, and the report argues that these nations should play a larger role in Iraq’s future. This runs counter to the interests of the Iraqi people and especially the interests of the people of the Kurdistan Region – it amounts to interference in Iraq’s internal affairs.

7) Recommendations 27 and 35 support rewarding those who opposed the political process in Iraq, by restoring them to government posts and power. This runs counter to the interests of the majority of the Iraqi people and the democratic process.

8) We offer our thanks to the President of the United States for bringing down the former regime and for his administration's role in building a new Iraq. The Iraq Study Group has offered unrealistic and unreasonable recommendations, in the hope of helping the US extricate itself from a difficult situation. If under this pretext the Iraq Study Group believes it can impose unreasonable recommendations on us, we, then, on behalf of the people
of the Kurdistan Region, reject everything that is against the interests of Iraq and the Kurdistan Region.

9) The report contradicts the words of Mr. James Baker, who told us by phone that the special nature of the Kurdistan Region had been taken into consideration in the report. Although we communicated the Kurdistan Regional Government’s perspective to the commission in a letter before the report was released, the commission ignored the letter and did not read it.

In closing, we state that we are in no way abiding by this report; we do not want the achievements of the political process in Iraq generally, and the Kurdistan Region specifically, to be marginalized, especially in the wake of elections and a constitutional referendum that was approved by 80 percent of the Iraqi people. Elections, we might add, that were supported by the international community and the United States.

Before others attempt to solve Iraqi problems, let Iraqis think about national reconciliation seriously. We call on all Iraqi groups who believe in the political and constitutional process and a federal and democratic Iraq, to take serious steps to solve our problems so that we can dispense with the deeply flawed recommendations of others.

Masoud Barzani
President of the Kurdistan Region, 7 December 2006