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ByLaraJakes The Associated Press BAGHDAD America's top diplomat said Monday that leaders of Iraq's factions must keep their commit- ments to seat a new gov- ernment next week, be- fore a Sunni insurgency sweeps away hopes for a lasting peace. Meeting with all fac- tions, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry had a dire message to leaders of Iraq's bitterly divided Shi- ite, Sunni and Kurdish po- litical coalitions who have lived through more than three decades of dictator- ship, sanctions and wars. "This is a critical mo- ment for Iraq's future," Kerry said at a press con- ference in Baghdad. "It is a moment of decision for Iraq's leaders and it's a mo- ment of great urgency." Sunnis frustrated with being cut out of power are increasingly joining the ISIL, a bloody insurgency that has been emboldened by battlefield successes in neighboring Syria's civil war and has made rapid and record gains in Iraq over the past two weeks. Kerry is seeking to hold the officials to a govern- ment transition that the U.S. believes will stave off the threat of a new civil war by giving more power to Iraq's minorities. Kerry offered few details of his closed-door meet- ings in Baghdad. But he said each of the officials he met with — including Shi- ite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki — committed to seat a new parliament by July 1 as the constitution requires. "The very future of Iraq depends on choices that will be made in the next days and weeks, and the future of Iraq depends primarily on the ability of Iraq's leaders to come to- gether and take a stand united against ISIL," Kerry said, referring to the in- surgency known as the Is- lamic State of Iraq and the Levant. "Not next week, not next month, but now." He also said no coun- try — including the U.S. — should try to pick new leadership for Iraq. "That is up to the people of Iraq," Kerry said. Al-Maliki is facing growing calls for his resig- nation as disgruntled Sun- nis say they do not believe he will give them a greater voice in the government. After suffering together through more than eight years of war — which killed nearly 4,500 Ameri- can troops and more than 100,000 Iraqis — Washing- ton and Baghdad are try- ing to shelve mutual wari- ness to curb the very real prospect of the Mideast nation falling into a fresh bout of sectarian strife. Parliament Speaker Osama al-Nujaifi, one of Iraq's top-ranking Sunnis, told Kerry that the insur- gents pose "a threat to the entire world." Al-Nujaifi, is from Mosul, Iraq's sec- ond largest city which was overrun earlier this month by militants. Of the insurgents, al-Nu- jaifi said "we have to con- front it through direct mili- tary operations, political re- formssothatwecaninjecta new hope into our own peo- ple so that they can support the political process and the unity of Iraq." IRAQ Ke rr y: ' Mo men t of decision' for nation's leaders Officialsneedto work together to quell insurgency By Sinan Salaheddin The Associated Press BAGHDAD The turmoil in Iraq has thrown the OPEC member's ambitious plans to boost oil production into doubt, threatening to crimp its most vital economic life- line. Northern oil fields im- periled by the militants' ad- vance have been shut down, and companies have begun evacuating workers else- where in the country. Iraq's Kurdish minority has moved to solidify control over the northern oil-rich city of Kirkuk and other disputed areas, weakening Baghdad's claims to the energy riches buried beneath while bol- stering the Kurds' aspira- tions of greater autonomy. The heart of Iraq's oil in- dustry is in the mainly Shi- ite south, which so far has been spared this month's advance by militants led by the al-Qaida spin-off group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The insurgents quickly took over Iraq's second-larg- est city of Mosul, Saddam Hussein's hometown of Ti- krit and smaller communi- ties in the Sunni heartland as government forces melted away. As they disappeared, Kurdish security forces pusheddeeperintocontested territories abutting theirself- ruled northern enclave. A senior Iraqi oil offi- cial said Baghdad has lost at least 400,000 barrels a day because of production cuts at oil fields in Kirkuk and nearby towns. Author- ities also have had to shut down the Beiji refinery, which has been the scene of fierce clashes. Authori- ties have only been able to produce 30,000 to 40,000 barrels a day from Kirkuk fields to feed a small refin- ery, the official said. The Beiji refinery and a nearby power plant supply Iraq with a third of its re- fined fuel and nearly a tenth of its electricity, according to Barclays analysts. A major export pipeline controlled by Baghdad that traverses restive Sunni-dom- inatedareasofnorthern Iraq was shut down earlier this year due to terrorist attacks. So far, the Kurds have not approached Kirkuk's oil fields or tried to pump oil through an independent ex- port pipeline through Tur- key that they built late last year, the oil official said. But their advance has left them "much more well-po- sitioned to retain full con- trol of the contested territo- ries," including Kirkuk, said Ayham Kamel, Middle East and North Africa director at Eurasia Group in London. "The new reality em- bodies Kurdish aspirations and withdrawing from all of these territories is close to impossible," Kamel said. Kirkuk, 180 miles (290 kilometers) north of Bagh- dad, is home to Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen, who all have competing claims to the area. Kurds have long wanted to incorporate it into their largely autono- mous region, but Arabs and Turkmen are opposed. In the 1970s and 1980s the Arab-dominated gov- ernment in Baghdad drove hundreds of thousands of Kurds out of Kirkuk and surrounding regions, set- tling Arabs from the south in their place in an attempt to pacify a region that had seen repeated revolts. With an eye on state- hood, the Kurds appear to be gearing up for a conflict with Baghdad on the issue. The prime minister of the Kurdish region, Nechervan Barzani, recently said there "is no way to go back to pre- Mosul Iraq" and that any political compromise must take into consideration the reality on the ground. Down south, where Iraq's main oil facilities are con- centrated far from militant- held territory, oil compa- nies, including Exxon Mobil and BP, have evacuated for- eign employees from some major fields. The move has not affected the production from the safer southern fields yet, but "it is a wor- rying sign for us," the offi- cial added. IRAQ Upheaval threatens to derail oil expansion plans THEASSOCIATEDPRESS An Iraqi worker operates valves at the Rumaila oil refinery near the city of Basra, 340 miles southeast of Baghdad, Iraq, in 2009. The turmoil in Iraq has thrown the OPEC member's ambitious plans to boost oil production into doubt, threatening to crimp its most vital economic lifeline. Insurgency cuts into OPEC's production goals Landscape/Fence Steve's Tractor &LandscapeService •FenceBuilding•Landscaping • Trenching • Rototilling • Disking • Mowing • Ridging • Post Hole Digging • Blade Work • Sprinkler Installation • Concrete Work Cont. 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