Via the BBC: Rice visits Iraq’s volatile north

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has made an unannounced visit to the volatile northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk.

SecDef Gates made an “unannounced trip” earlier in the month and, in fact, I believe that all the visits by any high ranking US official since the invasion has been “unannounced.” On the one hand, one wants to keep such visitors safe, yet on the other surely the continued need to sneak by such officials bespeaks of the ongoing insecurity in the country?

The problems at hand is not a small one, and it is also one that underscores how post-Saddam plans have gone awry, as oil from places such as Kirkuk were supposed to be freely flowing by now and paying for reconstruction.

Analysts say the Bush administration is frustrated that recent security gains in the oil-rich region have not been accompanied by political advances.

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The Kurds want to see the province of which Kirkuk is the capital attached to their own autonomous area in the north - an idea resisted by many Arabs and Turkmen.

Under the Iraqi constitution, a referendum on the issue was supposed to take place by the end of this year but preparations have been delayed.

Many major divisive issues, such as a law to allocate the country’s oil resources, have still not been resolved.