Maliki's government gives Kirkuk to the Kurds

Maliki's cabinet today endorsed a relocation plan aimed at moving Sunni Arabs out of Kirkuk. Importantly, this is not a forced relocation, as some of the earlier discussion indicated, but a "voluntary" relocation of all Sunnis who settled in Kirkuk since Saddam's efforts to Arabize the town began in 1968.

But, on a larger scale, this would certainly seem to indicate that the Shia parties in government fully intend to back the Kurds'claim on Kirkuk overriding any hopes the Sunnis might have had.

(The Shia are using Kirkuk and Kurdish autonomy as bargaining chips to keep the Kurds in a political coalition that allows the Shia to steamroll the minority Sunnis.)

Officially, a formal permanent settlement on Kirkuk is scheduled by the end of this year.

(I will say it again: So long as the Sunnis have no redress but violence, the civil war will continue.)