As if the Iraqi people do not have enough problems, it seems that there is now a dispute brewing over the country's flag.
Leaders of Iraq's Kurdish minority want the flag changed, and are threatening not to fly the Saddam Hussein-era banner during a pan-Arab meeting in the Kurdish-run north next month.
The parliament in Baghdad is trying to find a solution in time for the conference.
Haidar al-Abadi, a legislator with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Dawa party, said:
"It's a potentially explosive issue and we need to tread carefully".
The Kurds maintain that the colours of the national flag are not representative of all Iraqis and are demanding that the color yellow, which dominates their own flag, to be added.
Mahmoud Othman, a prominent Kurdish lawmaker, said:
"It is not possible to raise the flag in its present form, even for the meeting of the Arab parliamentarians.
The Kurds have been persecuted and killed under that banner. It must be changed."
Iraq has far more important issues to address at this time, than that of the flag.
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