Kurds: One Step Closer To Becoming A Sovereign Nation -- July 12, 2014

On Thursday, June 19, 2014, I wrote:

Of all the stories out there right now, I'm really curious how Kurdistan will play out. The tea leaves suggest Kurdistan could take this as their best opportunity yet to separate from Baghdad completely. They won't get US support (but Obama has flip-flopped so much they probably don't pay much attention to hm any more anyway) but they might get Turkish help. Turkey is probably now more concerned about ISIS than the Kurds. Turkey has always had an Islamist problem and it's gotten worse since I retired from the USAF. I think Turkey has a bigger risk of insurgency than Saudi Arabia.

It looks like it is already happening. Today (Friday, July 11, 2014), Reuters at Rigzone is reporting:

Kurdish forces seized two oilfields in northern Iraq and took over operations from a state-run oil company on Friday, while Kurdish politicians formally suspended their participation in Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government.

The moves escalated a feud between the Shi'ite-led central government and the autonomous Kurdish region driven by a Sunni insurgency which threatens to fragment Iraq along sectarian and ethnic lines three years after the withdrawal of U.S. troops.

The Kurdish forces took over production facilities at the Bai Hassan and Kirkuk oilfields near the city of Kirkuk, the oil ministry in Baghdad said. It called on the Kurds to withdraw immediately to avoid "dire consequences."

Kurdish forces took control of nearby Kirkuk a month ago after Iraqi troops withdrew in the face of a lightning assault by Islamic State militants, who have seized large parts of northern and western Iraq. The two oilfields have a combined production capacity of 450,000 barrels per day but have not been producing significant volumes since March when Baghdad's Kirkuk-Ceyhan export pipeline was sabotaged.

The Kurd's golden rule: those who have the oil make the rules.  As the Mideast spirals into chaos (Foxnews.com), the Kurds are just off the radar scope, consolidating their gains. According to the linked article, there are those who believe President Obama has almost no influence any more in the Mideast. Whether he does or doesn't, there are signs he no longer cares.