Although relations seem to be improving between Turkey and the Kurds, relations between Arabs and Kurds in Iraq is soring . Previously Kurdish parties had dominated northern Iraqi not due to their numbers, but, simply, due to the Sunni boycott of elections.

But the Sunnis ended their boycott and participated in regional elections - of which the three Kurdish region were absent from - in the previous month. In one regional council - Nineveh - where Kurds were previously dominant, Sunni parties got 49% of the vote. This change in political fortune has unsettled the Kurds.

Further, the Kurdish leadership is wary of moves by Baghdad to centralize authority and the continuing failure to produce an oil agreement. And there is also the issue of Kurdish-Arab cities and whether they will come under Kurd or Arab regional rule.

[The Kurd-Arab city of Kirkuk. Seems like an older photo.]

All these forces are combining to possibly create a tension situation if they United States does not step in to settle disputes. The Kurdish prime minister - report The Economist - warned that continuing disputes could start a war between Iraqi Kurds and Arabs.

Such a war would be incredibly tragic for the Kurds and slightly more so for Iraqis northern Arabs given that they have just begun to enjoy a degree of stability and normalcy.

Kurds want the United States to settle all disagreements before it troops level, many suggest a U.S. envoy or a United Nation or European Union delegation.

An American general - quoted in the aforementioned Economist - says that the Obama administration wants to “kick the issue down the road”. Such a policy would be a grave mistake. Now is the time to deal with this issue before tensions rise so much that people start leaving the negotiating table and pick up arms. If this issue is not settled before the departing date of 2011 for U.S. troops, then violence would probably lead to a continuation of a U.S. presence. Or Kurds might wait till U.S. troops leave to spark war. Such an outcome would be awful Iraq and America’s legacy in the country. The Obama administration would send a delegation to settler all matters post hast.