Analysis: Kurds Show Signs of Seceding From Iraq

SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq -- With violence bloodying Iraq, Kurds in the peaceful north have been showing signs of going their own way, raising their own flag and even hinting they could secede in a dispute over oil wealth _ moves that have alarmed Shiites and Sunnis.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's visit to Kurdistan on Friday underlined American worries that Kurds may be pushing too hard too soon for autonomy powers at a time of increasing sectarian tensions.

Kurds insist they are only using the autonomous powers given to them by the constitution passed last year that laid down a federal system in Iraq. But many of those powers _ particularly the division of oil wealth _ remain vague.

Some Shiites are also pressing for their own autonomous region in the south, but even mere talk of federalism _ amid a wave of Shiite-Sunni violence that has killed thousands this year _ has raised fears of the country falling apart.

"I warn those who back federal regions," a top Sunni Arab cleric, Harith al-Obeidi, said in his prayer sermon Friday in a Baghdad mosque. "They should think about security in Baghdad before claiming that federalism will provide security for the regions. ... Federalism in its current form will lead to the division of Iraq."

Read the rest at the Washington Post

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