International

Iraq Deputy Prime Minister on Diversity, Security

By Robert Siegel

Published September 18, 2006 at 1:00 PM PDT

This story was published more than 18 years ago.

Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih attends a discussion on "Iraq in Transition" at the Brookings Institution, Sept. 13, 2006, in Washington, D.C. Salih has served as deputy prime minister since May 2006.

Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih, an Iraqi Kurd, says that security is a serious problem for all of Iraq.

Just today, two suicide car bombers struck a police station in Ramadi, killing two people. In the northern city of Tal Afar, a suicide bomber killed at least 20 in an open-air market. The attacks point to the reach of the violence that has become part of daily life.

Salih says that Kurds in the relatively peaceful area in Northern Iraq should be just as concerned with the security of their nation.

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"If the situation in Baghdad goes sour, if there is a civil war in Iraq, it will not be a long time before Kurdistan will be plunged into it, undermining everything that the Kurds care for," Salih says. "That is why you find the Kurdish leadership seriously involved in Baghdad, and trying to help overcome these sectarian divides to bring about national unity."