According to reports, Provincial Council head of Iraq’s oil-rich Kirkuk province Rizkar Ali Hamma has resigned, saying that he was frustrated at being caught in the middle of a continuing impasse between the central government and the autonomous Kurdish region. He said that he quitted over a “lack of solutions for Kirkuk,” a multi-ethnic province of Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen that is at the centre of a dispute between the Baghdad government and autonomous Kurdistan. The Provincial Governor, Abdul Rahman Mustapha also indicated that he would also step down over the next few days for the same reason. Both officials are ethnic Kurds. Officials in Kurdistan wish to incorporate Kirkuk into their own autonomous region, but it is also claimed by the central government in Baghdad.1

• 1. “Iraqi official quits over Kirkuk dispute,” Khaleej Times, March 16, 2011, at http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle08.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2...