Kurds Seize Disputed Oil Hub Amid Iraq Chaos (assume control of "majority of the Kurdistan region")

AP ^ | June 14, 2014 | Diaa Hadid and Emad Matti

[xzins]

After a decades-long dispute between Arabs and Kurds over the oil-rich northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, it took just an hour and a half for its fate to be decided.

As al-Qaida-inspired militants advanced across northern Iraq and security forces melted away, Kurdish fighters who have long dominated Kirkuk ordered Iraqi troops out and seized full control of the regional oil hub and surrounding areas, according to a mid-ranking Army officer. He said he was told to surrender his weapons and leave his base.

"They said they would defend Kirkuk from the Islamic State," said the Arab officer, who oversaw a warehouse in the city's central military base. He asked that his rank not be made public.

The Kurdish takeover of the long-disputed city came days after the extremist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and other Sunni militants seized much of the country's second largest city of Mosul and Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit before driving south toward Baghdad. Their lightning advance has plunged the country into its worst crisis since the 2011 withdrawal of U.S. troops.

A spokesman for Kurdish forces, known as the peshmerga, said they had only moved in after Iraqi troops retreated, assuming control of the "majority of the Kurdistan region" outside the semi-autonomous Kurdish Regional Government.

"Peshmerga forces have helped Iraqi soldiers and military leaders when they abandoned their positions,"

A lawmaker from Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Shiite-led bloc condemned the peshmerga's move, calling it a "plot" carried out in coordination with the regional government that would "lead to problems."

"The Kurds have taken advantage of the current situation. They seized Kirkuk and they have other plans to swallow other areas," Mohammed Sadoun told The Associated Press.

[Thud]

Sharing issues over oil, as I said. One Shia state with oil initially, and one without. I expect those will eventually merge but the delay will give the Sunni Arabs enough time to create a viable state of their own, almost certainly centered around the rural tribal leadership.

I had thought since 2003 that the Shia would eventually run the Sunnis into Syria, but the experience of the Maliki government shows the Shia simply lack the organizational ability to project the necessary force.

[Cronos]

But where would these two Shia states be? I don’t see any geographical separation or ideological

[Thud]

Check the location of the oilfields and pipelines in southern Iraq which are producing at the moment. Those plus the oil export port of Basra might not want to share the money with other Shiite areas.

[Tea Party Terrorist]

Wonder how the Turks will react to a Kurdish state (not well I presume).

[Grampa Dave]

“Wonder how the Turks will react to a Kurdish state (not well I presume).”

The Kurds will have a lot of oil to ship out via Turkey.

There should be enough $’s/Euros to keep the peace.