I hope this defuses the bomb:
Iraqi leaders received Wednesday a highly anticipated U.N. report on proposals to ease ethnic rifts in oil-rich northern city of Kirkuk and other disputed areas, a U.N. spokesman said.
The report is not binding for Iraqi authorities, but it could offer a blueprint to try to solve the political impasse over Kirkuk, the hub for Iraq's northern oil fields and a fault line for the nation's Arab and Kurdish populations.
A spokesman for the U.N. mission in Iraq, Said Arikat, said the report was given to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and other top officials. Arikat refused to discuss the contents of the report, which has been in the works since last year.
But it's expected to offer recommendations to ease tensions in the northern city of Kirkuk, such as possible "special status" that would allow joint oversight from the Arab-dominated central government in Baghdad and the Kurdish autonomous region in the north.
It would be a mistake all around for this dispute to escalate to warfare and secession.
