December 27, 2007 (LPAC)--On December 26, Kurdish lawmakers agreed to a six-month delay in a referendum on whether the oil-rich city of Kirkuk should join the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan or remain under the control of the Iraqi central government. The vote defuses for now the potentially explosive issue of Kirkuk, which is claimed by both Kurds and Arabs and has caused analysts to warn that it could trigger a fresh wave of bloodshed in Iraq that could draw in Turkey as well.

The speaker of Kurdistan's parliament, Adnan al-Mufti, reported that "the proposal made by the new UN special representative to Iraq, Steffan de Mistura, had been overwhelmingly endorsed." The parliament's agreement to delay the referendum, due to take place by the end of the year under Article 140 of the new Iraqi constitution, is important as it has been a largely Kurdish-driven process.

U.S. intelligence sources report that Kirkuk has been targeted for ethnic cleansing of all non-Kurds, in an effort to assure that the oil-reserve-rich area falls under Kurdish control. Among the population forcefully expelled from the Kirkuk region are large numbers of Turkmens, ethnic Turks, who have lived in the area for a very long time, and who are a factor in Turkey's own claims on the oil reserves of that area. It is ironic that the Kurdish region has been touted as the safest and most secure part of Iraq, since the time of the U.S. invasion; yet, it could soon be the epicenter of some of the most violent clashes, and a possible foreign invasion.