[Arnfinn Madsen]

What is clear is that if you look upon it geographically the Sunnis directly and indirectly lived from the oil in the north and south (Sunnis made up the vast majority of the oilfunded bureaucracy). If you cut away the north and south the middle state does not have much chance of success and will probably be a constant source of dissatisfied Sunnis wanting to revenge/attack Kurds, Sjias, Americans and others.

Maybe 3 states but to guarantee the Sunnis a share of the oil revenues would be a good solution?

BTW, the turks will go berserk if the Kurds gets it own state. It is not unlikely that they will attack it for security reasons without asking the US for permission even if it looks like a senseless thing to do.