(1.1.2007) The key — and the most challenging part of an ethnic relocation policy — is to get the parties to informally accept it. (…)

Obtaining agreement in Iraq will require not only rapprochement among some key Sunni and Shi‘a leaders, but a constructive role by the Kurds, who are already ensconced in relative security in their own territory. Kurds see the oil – rich, multi – ethnic town of Kirkuk as both the capital of their longed – for state and a symbol of their oppression at the hands of Saddam Hussein (who engineered mass Sunni migration to Kirkuk while expelling Kurds). Thousands of Kurds have already returned to Kirkuk, heightening tensions. The upsurge in sectarian warfare has emboldened the Kurds and their backers to advance a partition/independence agenda. U.S. pressure on the Kurds (whose territory has been used as a base for Kurdish separatists in Turkey) could encourage them to cut a deal on Kirkuk’s oil while earning greater Sunni cooperation on property swaps in the town.