In Iraq, political tensions between the ruling Shiites and Kurds are intensifying. Jalal Talabani, the Kurdish president of Iraq, has called on Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari to resign and he accused Jaafari and the Shiites of monopolizing power and ignoring Kurdish demands. Middle East analyst Juan Cole warns this could split the country. Cole writes “If the Kurdish-Shiite alliance is over with, then I suspect so is Iraq… When the political will of a country’s elite fragments, the country falls apart. It happened in Lebanon. It is happening in Iraq.”