"The Kurdish people have the right to claim self-determination, but we decided to stay within a united Iraq," said Nechirvan Barzani, former premier of Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region.

His uncle Massud Barzani who is the regional president said at the opening of a week-long congress of his Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) on Saturday that self-determination was "a right." He said it would be presented at the meeting "to be studied and discussed."

"The statement by president Barzani has been misunderstood," his nephew said.

"If we had opted for independence, we would have announced it, but we have not decided a thing. We want to remain in a united and federal Iraq," he said.

He added that the Kurds were happy with the autonomy granted to them after the 2003 US-led invasion that ousted the now executed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

"Self-determination is a natural right of the Kurdish people but with what we got in 2003 with the new Iraq, we decided to stay within a federal Iraq," the former premier said.

Iraq's Kurdish north, made up of three provinces, exercises control over all policy making, except in national defence and foreign affairs.

The elder Barzani's weekend comments in the Kurdish capital of Arbil had drawn the ire of the country's Sunni and Shiite Arab leaders, who argued that it presaged a break-up of Iraq.

"The right of self-determination is something that concerns people living under occupation, but this is not the case for Kurdistan, which has a special status in Iraq," said Alia Nusayaf, an MP with the Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc.

"It makes me wonder if the Kurds asked for federalism (in Iraq's constitution) to first form a region and then to separate from Iraq," he said.

earlier related report
Iraq attacks target Shiites, Sahwa
Baghdad (AFP) Dec 13, 2010 - A bomb and suicide attack in Iraq killed six people on Monday, including four Shiites and the wife and daughter of an anti-Qaeda fighter, police said.

The four Shiites were killed and 17 others wounded when a suicide bomber detonated explosives in the Diyala provincial town of Baladruz, 75 kilometres (47 miles) north of Baghdad, the police said.

It came after a similar attack on Sunday in the nearby city of Baquba, also in Diyala, when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives-laden vest near an Ashura procession, killing three people.

Each year, suspected Sunni insurgents target Shiites who descend on Iraq for the commemoration of Ashura, which marks the slaying of the revered Imam Hussein by the armies of the Sunni caliph Yazid in 680.

Elsewhere on Monday, insurgents killed a woman and her daughter when they bombed the house of a member of Sahwa, the anti-Qaeda militia, in the town of Jurf al-Sakhr, 75 kilometres (47 miles) south of Baghdad.

Separately, three people were wounded by a bomb in a northern district of Baghdad, said an interior ministry official.

del.icio.us	Digg	Reddit
YahooMyWeb	Google	Facebook

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS Solar Energy Solutions Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ... Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News