Meeting of Iraq Council of Ministers begins in Erbil
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki visited the Kurdistan region on Sunday for the first time in more than two years, in an attempt to resolve a long-running dispute over oil and land that has strained Iraq's unity to the limit.
"Our expectations should not be too high," said the Kurdistan Regional Government's chief of foreign affairs, Falah Mustafa. "The ball is in the court of the federal government in Baghdad."
Unless the current talks succeed where previous rounds have failed, Iraqi Kurdish President Masoud Barzani said last week the self-ruled enclave would be forced to seek a "new form of relations" with Baghdad.
"This meeting won't produce detailed solutions to the outstanding issues, but for sure it opens the door for dialogue and understanding based on goodwill," said cabinet secretary Ali al-Alaq, who travelled to Arbil from Baghdad.
Land is another major sticking point. The Iraqi army and Kurdish "peshmerga" troops have both deployed to an oil-rich band of territory over which both claim jurisdiction.
Easing relations with the Kurds would help Maliki, who is facing an intensified campaign by Sunni Islamist insurgents and months of protests by Sunni leaders who accuse the Shi'ite premier of marginalising them.
"The Kurds recognize that for months now, there has been an emerging opportunity to get Maliki to cooperate," said Ramzy Mardini at the Beirut-based Iraq Institute for Strategic Studies.
"Maliki probably recognizes that it is necessary to cooperate in the short term. The Sunni protests and the civil war in Syria are causing him a great deal of discomfort about his future prospects."
