Iraq and its foreign backers must abandon a centralised system of governance if the country is to survive, Iraqi Kurdistan’s deputy prime minister has said, warning that his semi-autonomous region would gain de facto independence if the slide into chaos continues.
Qubad Talabani said that air strikes and counter offensives – led by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki with US support – were not enough to stem the Sunni insurgency threatening to rip Iraq apart. A political deal to decentralise Iraq is the only way to stop the conflict, he said.
“We have to get our minds off of this notion that a strong central government can govern this country, because it can’t,” he told the Financial Times in an interview. “We’re past that. We tried that. We had some competent Sunni ministers in the government . . . it didn’t provide adequate representation to the people in those [Sunni] territories.”
Kurds in northern Iraq already run a semi autonomous region, but say their inability to negotiate with the Shia-dominated government over budgets and disputed territories, as well as the Sunnis’ sense of marginalisation and repression, means governance needs to be further localised.
That could mean splitting majority Shia Arabs, Sunni Arabs and Kurds into regions and stripping the government in Baghdad of responsibilities other than defence, foreign relations and the central bank.
Mr Talabani, the well-heeled former representative of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Washington, was sworn in as the deputy prime minister last week as the rest of Iraq was shaken by an insurgency led by militants of the hardline Islamic State (known as Isis) that swept through Iraq’s Sunni areas.
Insurgent-controlled territory now divides Kurdistan from the capital Baghdad and the Shia majority south.
“For us, it was like we woke up one morning and the country looked like a different country. There’s a greater fear of Iraq breaking away from us,” he said. “That’s what it looks like: We have a new country inside the country.”
As insurgents seized more than 10 per cent of Iraq, Kurdish forces have placed areas disputed between them and Baghdad – such as the oil-rich Kirkuk province – under their protection. It is unlikely Baghdad will win those territories back.
KRG president and head of the region’s dominant Kurdistan Democratic party, Masoud Barzani, openly stated last week that Kirkuk would remain under Kurdish control and that independence could be near, hinting it may be time for a referendum on the issue.
Mr Talabani, who is from the rival Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party, was more circumspect, saying the Kurds still hoped to make a deal in Baghdad.
Kurds and Sunnis are adamant that their participation depends on an end to Mr Maliki’s eight-year rule, and the appointment of a new premier who will negotiate. It is not yet clear if majority Shia politicians will agree on an alternative candidate.
“We’re trying to make Iraq work, we’re continuing to participate in the political process in Baghdad,” he said. “There may come a time – and we’re not there yet – where we have to decide whether this patient is savable.”