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Barzani
Meets PUK Delegation, Agreement on Electricity Issue
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US
Rules Out Kurdish State
BBC July 14, 2002 US Deputy Secretary of Defence Paul Wolfowitz has ruled out the prospect of Washington's support for the creation of a Kurdish state in northern Iraq. Speaking in the Turkish city of Istanbul during a four-day visit to the region, Mr Wolfowitz said that such a state would destabilise the region and prove unacceptable to the US. The Turkish Government, which has a substantial Kurdish minority of its own, is concerned that any prospective military action against Iraq by the US and its allies could lead to the establishment of an independent Kurdistan. Turkey was involved in a long war with Kurdish separatist rebels in the 1980s and 1990s. However
Mr Wolfowitz reassured his Turkish hosts, saying that support for Kurdish
independence would not be forthcoming and that Kurds in Northern Iraq "increasingly
seem to understand this fact".
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