Via the AP: Iraq’s Kurds May Drop Secession Demand
Talks on
Iraq’s new constitution have stalled over the role of Islam and the distribution of the country’s oil wealth, negotiators said Saturday. The leadership of the country’s Kurdish minority said it may drop its contentious demand for the right to secede.
Unfortunately, that is the same list they have been fighting about for some time, but the willingness of the Kurds to drop the right of self-determination is a sign of progress. Certainly codifying the potential for secession is problematic (at least in my mind) and I can understand why the Sunnis would oppose it.
Functional federalism is a must in this context, I would argue, but confederalism or any form of government that weakens the central government too much on key national issues will doom this experiment.