Kurd officials oppose oil law

SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq: Kurdish leaders on Wednesday spoke out against a key oil law, raising further doubts over efforts to pass one of the political benchmarks sought by the United States at a time when the Bush administration is trying to fend off critics of its Iraq policy...

The Kurds made clear Wednesday they oppose the latest draft of the bill, which al-Maliki said on July 3 had been approved unanimously by his Cabinet. His aides say the draft was passed after changes were made to an earlier version Kurds had said they supported.

The top oil official in the Kurd's northern autonomous zone rejected those changes. The amendments "reduce the powers of the (Kurdish) region and should not be approved," Kurdistan's Natural Resource Minister Ashti Hawrami told a joint meeting of the Iraqi and Kurdish regional parliaments in the northern city of Irbil.

Sunni Arabs, who are centered in regions of Iraq without proven oil reserves, are pressing for greater central control of the industry, fearing that Kurds and Shiites in the oil-rich north and south will monopolize control of oil contracts and hoard the profits.

Read the rest at the International Herald Tribune

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