KurdistanObserver.com

Talabani Expresses Concern Over Turkish, Iranian Troop Build-Up On The Border

BAGHDAD, April 23, - AP- President Jalal Talabani expressed his concern on Sunday over reported Iranian and Turkish troop concentrations on those countries’ borders with Iraq.

Turkey has moved thousands of troops to the border region in what its military said was an offensive against Turkish Kurd guerrillas.

Iran has also reportedly moved forces to the border, and last week shelled a mountainous region inside Iraq used by Iranian Kurd fighters for infiltration into Iran, according to Iraqi Kurd officials. There were no reports of casualties from Friday’s artillery and rocket barrage.

Talabani said that so far Iranian and Turkish forces have stayed on their sides of the border.

But “I have expressed my concern over these concentrations ... Iraq is a soveriegn independent nation that won’t let other nations interfere in its internal affairs,” he said at a press conference with US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad in the northern city of Erbil.

Turkey has called on the United States to crack down on rebel bases in Kurdistan (northern Iraq), but US commanders, struggling to battle Iraqi insurgents elsewhere, have been extremely reticent to fight the rebels, who are based in the remote mountain areas in one of the few stable parts of the country.

Meanwhile, Khalilzad said planned talks between the United States and Iran over stabilizing Iraq must wait until an Iraqi government is formed. Talabani said he would participate in any US-Iran talks.

“We see it as good that after an Iraqi government is formed, this issue can take shape,” Khalilzad said.

“If the United States holds talks alone with Iran without an Iraqi govenrment being formed, that would certainly be a problem for the Iraqi government,” the Afghan-born Khalilzad said, speaking in Dari. Once the governmnent is formed, “we have no problem with meetings with Iranian officials.”

Prime Minister-designate Jawad al-Maliki was tapped on Saturday to put together a government and has 30 days to do so.

The talks _ a rare, direct high-level meeting between the Iran and the United States _ are to deal exclusively with calming the situation in Iraq, where Iran holds enormous influence.

But Washington is under pressure to negotiate directly with Tehran on the nuclear issue amid rising tensions over Iran’s determination to push ahead with uranium enrichment despite a U.N. Security Council demand it stop the program.