This is good to hear, especially after this report by Omar that talks between the United Iraqi Coalition and the Kurdish Alliance melted down on the 13th.

NewsBAGHDAD/ARBIL (Reuters) – Talks between Kurdish leaders and a Shi’ite bloc to form the next Iraqi government have collapsed three days before the country’s first fully elected parliament meets, senior politicians said on Sunday.

Between them the two groups have the two-thirds majority needed to form the government and their failure to reach a deal could leave Iraq (news – web sites) in political limbo and further delay efforts to improve security and rebuild the country.

According to Omar, these were the Kurds’ demands:

-25% of the Nation’s income goes to the Kurdish cities (3 provinces-if we exclude Kirkuk-out of 18 provinces).

-The Peshmarga (around 100 000 fighters) remain under command of the Kurdistan regional government not the central defense ministry and that those fighters shall not be asked to operate in other regions.

-The cost of keeping those 100 000 fighters should be provided by the central government.

-The Iraqi Army has no right to enter the Kurdish areas without permission from the regional government.

-The 75 Kurdish members of the elected national assembly should have the veto right over the rest of the assembly.

Looks to me like they want to be their own autonomous country. It mirrors what Ali was saying a while back about each of the sects having their own idea about what democracy is. Luckily, the leader of the parties have announced that parliament will meet despite not having all the details worked out.

BAGHDAD — Kurdish and Shi’ite leaders agreed yesterday to convene Iraq’s new parliament this week even if they fail to work out the remaining details of their agreement to form a coalition government.

Shi’ite officials said they also agreed to reach out to the country’s Sunni Arab community to name the parliament speaker for the 275-member National Assembly that convenes tomorrow.

The Shi’ite clergy-backed United Iraqi Alliance and a Kurdish coalition, which won the two biggest blocks of seats in the Jan. 30 elections, agreed last week to form a coalition government with Islamic Dawa party leader Ibrahim al-Jaafari as prime minister. In return, Jalal Talabani will become Iraq’s first Kurdish president.

”We discussed the blueprint of the agreement reached Thursday. Some issues were revised and those revisions are still being discussed,” alliance member Ali al-Dabagh said.

Dabagh expressed optimism that a final deal would be reached soon, but added that even without an agreement ”the first session of the National Assembly will be held on Wednesday anyway.”

Barham Saleh, a Kurd, indicated the two groups want to reach out to other factions to fill some Cabinet posts.

He said Shi’ite and Kurd negotiators planned to meet today with representatives from interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi’s Iraqi List, which placed a distant third in the parliamentary elections.

This is all very interesting to me. Unfortunately, I’m running on Lebanon time because of all the action needing reporting and I need some sleep. I’ll be sure to update this post when I wake up and more information is available.

UPDATE: Awake now. And the Kurds and Shiites have closed the rift.

March 16 (Bloomberg) — Iraq’s dominant Shiite political group overcame differences with the Kurds about the extent of autonomy in the north as the National Assembly prepared to meet for the first time, interim Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said.

“The two delegations have made a great deal of progress to reach a political program for the new transitional government,” Zebari, 51, a member of the Kurdish Alliance, said in a telephone interview from Baghdad yesterday. “All the main elements have been agreed to. It’s a case of putting it in the right language.”

So far the deal is looking to go like this: Kurd for presidency, Shiite for premiership, and Sunni as the parliament speaker. Considering how few Sunnis there actually are in parliament, I think this is both sufficiently inclusive and strategic toward countering the insurgency. That’s the deal so far anyway. The first session of the assembly doesn’t expect to elect the parliament immediately, since it is mostly a ceremonial occassion, but this is what we can expect to see.