Barzani Denies Deal to Allow Palestinians in
Iraq Safe Haven
AP Feb 21, 2007
AMMAN, Jordan: Kurdish
officials denied Wednesday that the Iraqi government agreed to allow thousands
of Palestinian refugees in Iraq safe haven in northern Kurdish areas.
Earlier Wednesday, a Palestinian official in
Jordan said Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani had agreed to take in Palestinians
fearing attacks by militias in other parts of Iraq.
"Such topics didn't occur during the visit of
Palestinian delegation to Kurdistan," said Barzani's spokesman Fuad Hussein.
The Palestinian official, Hamadah Faraaneh, who
said he helped negotiate the deal, said the agreement was brokered in Iraq last
week following negotiations with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, Prime Minister
Nouri al-Maliki, Barzani and other officials.
The discrepancy could not immediately be
clarified, and Faraaneh could not be immediately reached for comment.
Faraaneh, an Amman-based member of the
Palestine National Council, which regards itself as a parliament in exile, told
The Associated Press the deal would allow "Palestinian refugees trapped in Iraq
a safe haven, a place to live, work or study in the Kurdish provinces and to
treat them appropriately as guests of the Kurdish region.
The U.N. refugee agency estimates about 15,000
Palestinians live in Baghdad as refugees and face constant threats from militias
and are unable to move freely. Some are being killed, kidnapped or forced to
leave their homes in different Iraqi neighborhoods, the U.N. High Commissioner
for Refugees has said.
Some Iraqis resent Palestinians living Iraq
because of Saddam Hussein's longtime preferential treatment toward them until he
was ousted in the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
Saddam gave large cash payments to Palestinian
suicide bombers in the 1990s, when Iraq faced crippling economic sanctions and
many Iraqis were jobless. That caused Iraqis to feel strong resentment toward
Palestinians and other Arabs who came to work in Iraq. Palestinians have left in
large numbers since the 2003 invasion because of widespread anger and violence
toward them.
