Tension has reached a very dangerous level in Iraq, with increasing violence open for escalation and strong polarization along sectarian lines.

What is happening, and which is expected to increase, is the trading of accusations between the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the demonstrators of a new Sunni uprising pursuing sectarian policies; the issue at stake is one of power sharing and political participation that has always been omnipresent.

The Kurdish constituency is still playing the role of balancer, torn between competing internal and external interests despite its increasing grudges against the central government and the recurrent political clashes between Baghdad and Erbil. Such clashes are taking place over the same power-sharing and political prerogatives with a further clash over what is sovereign and what is not. The former, of course, must lie in the hands of the central government.

Part of this legal debate is an issue of another dimension, of clashing identities, Arabness versus Kurdishness, organized peacefully but not successfully, via the constitutional relations and division of power between the national state and the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government.