Baghdad, Iraq – Iraq’s Cabinet signed off Tuesday on a revised bill to regulate the oil industry and sent it to parliament – a major step in reaching a long-delayed benchmark sought by the U.S. to promote reconciliation between Sunnis and Shiites.
Within hours of the announcement, however, the legislation hit a snag – the Kurds said they had neither seen nor approved the final text and might oppose it.
U.S. officials are hoping that passage of the oil bill and companion legislation to distribute oil revenues will rally Sunni support for the government and reduce backing for the insurgents.
In the latest violence, a car bomb exploded late Tuesday at an outdoor market in northeast Baghdad, killing 18 people and wounding 35, a police officer said on condition of anonymity because he was not supposed to release information.
The market is in a Shiite neighborhood frequently targeted by Sunni bombers.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told reporters that the oil bill is “the most important law in Iraq.”
The Cabinet endorsed a version of the legislation in February. But the Kurds protested that the measure was unconstitutional because it gave too much power to a yet-to-be-established national oil company in managing the oil fields.
The Kurds control 53 of the 275 parliament seats – not enough to defeat the measure on their own but enough to stall approval.
Nevertheless, government officials expressed confidence that parliament would approve the measure.
The bill is part of a package that would establish rules for exploiting Iraq’s vast oil wealth and provide a formula for distributing revenues among the 18 provinces. Iraq’s proved oil reserves have been estimated at 115 billion barrels – second-largest in OPEC after Saudi Arabia.
Some petroleum experts believe the real figure is even higher because Iraq lagged behind other countries in using modern surveying technology during the years of international sanctions under Saddam Hussein.
Most of Iraq’s known reserves lie in the Kurdish north and the Shiite south. Sunnis feared that the Shiites and Kurds – who dominate the government – would monopolize profits from the industry. U.S. officials are hoping that passage of an oil bill will help rally Sunni support for the political process.
President Bush has pressed al-Maliki to take a series of other political steps aimed at bringing Sunni Arabs into the political process.
In Baghdad, an Iraqi army lieutenant colonel and an Interior Ministry intelligence officer were killed in separate drive-by shootings Tuesday, police said.
A car bomb hit the convoy of an Iraqi police colonel in the northern city of Kirkuk, killing two passers-by and wounding 17, though the colonel survived, police in the city said. Police in both cities spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not supposed to release such information.
