Kurd Told to Fly Iraqi Flag

Iraq’s council of ministers has announced that the Iraqi national flag is the only banner that can be raised over government buildings anywhere in the country, pending a final ruling by parliament. The president of the Kurdistan region, Massoud Barzani, had earlier ordered the government offices to stop flying the Iraqi flag. But Iraqi prime minister Nuri al-Maliki’s office issued a statement reversing that ruling until the Iraqi parliament considered the matter and made any constitutional amendments necessary. Sami al-Askeri, a member of parliament for the United Iraqi Alliance, described Barzani’s decision to replace the Iraqi flag with the Kurdish one was a violation of the constitution that the Kurdistan Alliance had itself signed up to.