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Article: Dividing Iraq? The US Senate supports splitting Iraq into three sectarian statelets, incensing Arabs and fuelling fears that the disillusioned Americans plan partition.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)
- Article from:
- The Middle East
- Article date:
- November 1, 2007
- Author:
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IN OCTOBER, THE Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq announced it intended to develop its nascent oil industry independent of the policies of the beleaguered central government headed by Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki.
Considering that the Kirkuk oilfields in northern Iraq, which hold at least one-third of the country's known reserves, are claimed by the Kurds as part of their territory, the announcement was a bombshell.
It hardened the widespread belief that the long-dispossessed Kurds, who have been running what amounts to a semiautonomous region in northeastern Iraq since 1990, are seeking an independent state for the six provinces they ...