Kurdish Leader Calls for the Elimination of Ladenite Ansar Al-Islam.

Iraqi Kurd says won't blindly back U.S. attack

Reuters

Aug 7, 22002

The leader of one of the two Kurdish factions controlling northern Iraq said on Wednesday he would not offer blind support for U.S. military action to topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

"As to the attack of the United States, we are not yet assured what will be the purpose of this attack," Jalal Talabani, leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), told reporters after meeting Turkish officials in Ankara.

"We have made no decision yet to participate or not in the attack," Talabani said.

Northern Iraq has been controlled by the PUK and its rival the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) since shortly after the 1991 Gulf War. U.S. and British warplanes based in Turkey patrol a no-fly zone over the area to protect the Kurds.

Talabani is among Iraqi opposition leaders invited to Washington to discuss Iraq's future amid rising expectations of a U.S. attack.

Washington has made clear it wants to topple Saddam to stop him from developing weapons of mass destruction.

KDP leader Massoud Barzani told Reuters last week his forces would not get involved in a U.S. attack without assurances of their future autonomy and safety.

NATO member Turkey is concerned that military action in Iraq could lead to the establishment of an independent Kurdish state that could provoke unrest among Turkey's own Kurdish population in the southeast, just across the border from Iraq.

Talabani said he had come to Ankara to reassure Turkey that he wanted no such thing.

"We are Iraqis first, we are democratic Iraqis," he said.

"We are not struggling for an independent Kurdistan. On the contrary, we are struggling for a democratic and parliamentarian and united Iraq," Talabani said.

"Now Iraq is divided, we want to reunite Iraq," he said.

"We are not in favour of having a new dictatorship replacing the old one. And we are not for blindly participating in any attack or any plan."

KDP leader Barzani said last week the future shape of Iraq should be based on a federation.

Turkey has been involved in recent heavy diplomatic traffic to discuss the Iraqi situation. Turkish Foreign Minister Sukru Sina Gurel visited Jordan, another Baghdad neighbour, this week to compare notes.

Gurel also met Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri in Amman.

Jordan and Turkey both have extensive economic and trade ties with Baghdad, and Ankara fears a war on its borders could damage its already fragile economy. Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit has said he is trying to dissuade Washington from an attack.