Three recent events in Iraq have underscored that the country, one of the world’s most important oil and gas producers, continues to be highly volatile with many political, ethnic and sectarian issues remaining notably unresolved.

1. Yesterday, Iraq’s Shia-dominated government in Baghdad demanded that the country’s Kurdish regional government hand over to them the country’s Sunni vice-president, Tareq al-Hashemi. In December the government issued an arrest warrant against him on charges of running death squads during the country’s recent sectarian conflict, leading him to seek refuge in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region. Sunday’s demand for al-Hashemi, the most explicit yet made by Baghdad to the Kurds, highlights not only continuing tensions between Arab Sunnis and Shias in Iraq, but also unresolved tensions between the Iraqi national government and the autonomous Kurdish government in northern Iraq. (more…)