Iraq/Kurdistan: Oil Politics: Iraqi Kurdish Official Calls for Country’s Split

May 11, 2016 | Paul McLeary, Foreign Policy
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Just hours after the Islamic State hit multiple sites in Shiite neighborhoods across Baghdad, killing over 90 civilians, the governor of Kirkuk province in the Kurdish north said that it was time for his region to split from the country. “Kirkuk needs to get away from Baghdad,” Dr. Najmaldin Karim told a handful of reporters at the office of the Kurdistan Regional Government in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday. He blasted the political turmoil roiling Baghdad under the leadership of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, which saw the government shut down Kirkuk’s oil production earlier this year, plunging the province into an economic tailspin.