Kurd sees 'very bad signals' from Baghdad

SALAHUDDIN, IRAQ — Masrour Barzani, the head of the Kurdistan regional government's intelligence service and internal security agency in northern Iraq, rarely speaks in public. He is the powerful son of Massoud Barzani, the region's president, and is seen as one of the next generation of Kurdish leaders expected to defend the autonomy Iraqi Kurds gained after years of war and instability.

As tensions deepen between the Shiite Muslim-dominated government in Baghdad and the Kurds in the north, Masrour Barzani is a key player in the conflict over land in northern Iraq, including the oil-rich region of Kirkuk.

The Kurds are struggling with how to respond to an ascendant Baghdad, which is reluctant to accede to Kurdish wishes on holding a referendum to settle the fate of the disputed territories. Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution called for such a referendum to be held by December 2007, but the vote was never held. The 40-year-old leader recently spoke with The Times about the impasse, the chances of an Arab-Kurdish conflict and America's obligation to both Iraq and the Kurds.

--

How do you view the status of Article 140 and efforts by the Iraqi government to replace Kurdish officers with Arab leadership in the Iraqi army in the disputed territories?

Are we ready to go ahead and implement the constitution as it is and not be selective in the articles that serve our purpose and those articles we don't like? . . . We all have compromised to have reached that constitution, which we believe is the best way to help all of Iraq, from Kurdistan all the way to Baghdad and the south and the west. We don't see the same intention by some people in Baghdad.

--

President Massoud Barzani suggested recently to the Los Angeles Times that Prime Minister Nouri Maliki was acting in an authoritarian manner. Why do you think Maliki is not implementing Article 140?

We respect Mr. Maliki as prime minister. He is as an old ally, an old friend. It is not against him. It is against the entire approach of how to deal with the new Iraq. This [political] system is lacking a mechanism of following the constitution. There are things happening in Baghdad that are unconstitutional but still they get away with it -- the creation of different institutions and different, let's say, offices, alternative to other official government bodies. These things are happening, and no one is really complaining about it. . . .