TDN
Ilnur Cevik 
April 24, 2002

Kurdish leaders Masoud Barzani and Jalal Talabani have reached an agreement at a recent summit in Frankfurt, Germany to iron out their differences while cooperating and coordinating their activities in northern Iraq against terrorism, a highly placed source who attended the meeting told the Turkish Daily News on Tuesday. 

The summit meetings were held in several sessions under the auspices of the Americans. 

The source who asked not to be named said Kurdistan Democracy Party (KDP) leader Barzani and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) chief Talabani also briefly discussed the future of Iraq but vehemently denied that they had committed northern Iraq as a launching ground for a military operation against Saddam Hussein. 

"As Iraqi citizens, the two leaders of course touched upon the future of our country but the main issue of discussion was the disagreements between the KDP and the PUK," the source said. 

Pointing to the reports that appeared in the Arab press, the source said, these were gross distortions and were being leaked by circles who wanted to sabotage relations between the Iraqi Kurds and Baghdad. 

"These reports claimed that the Americans would use three air bases in northern Iraq to attack Saddam's forces which is absolute nonsense. Such things were never discussed in Frankfurt. Both the KDP and the PUK is approaching the issue with utmost caution and did not discuss using northern Iraq as a staging ground for an anti-Saddam military operation," the source said. 

He explained that there were still outstanding issues between the KDP and the PUK on what to call the regional parliament, elections and even revenue sharing. 

The Turkish Daily News had reported two months ago that the summit to iron out these differences would be held in Washington. But the two sides did not want to go to Washington. They could not meet in northern Iraq so Frankfurt was chosen as a venue and Barzani traveled to Germany via Syria and Talabani flew to Europe via Iran. The American side was represented by Ambassador Ryan Crocker, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Political Affairs. 

Asked if the two sides had managed to iron out their differences, the source said they had managed to make serious headway in normalizing their relations but there were still a long way to go for the convening of the regional parliament or holding local elections. 

He said the two leaders agreed that they were facing a common threat of terrorism and would cooperate and coordinate their anti-terrorism activities. 

In early April, Islamic extremists tried to assassinate Barham Saleh, the head of the PUK regional government in northern Iraq, in Suleymaniyeh. Seven people were killed in a fierce gun battle after the militants opened fire on Saleh and his entourage. 

Two gunmen and five of Salih's bodyguards were killed in the clash, while one of the assailants managed to get away. He was captured 14 hours later by PUK security. A score of people who provided logistic support for the attackers were also caught. 

The assailant who was caught was reportedly the brother of another Islamic extremist who assassinated the governor ot Erbil last year. Erbil is the leading city in the area run by the KDP regional government. He had travelled to several Arab countries before the attack in Suleymaniyeh and was last seen in Yemen and Jordan. He was suspected of having links with the Al-Qaida terrorist group and had allegedly travelled to northern Iraq via Baghdad. 

This meant Islamic extremists are targeting both PUK and KDP officials. So Barzani and Talabani took up the issue in Frankfurt. 

The source also said sides agreed that while the Americans, as the only superpower, were important for them they were located 5,000 miles away from northern Iraq and that Turkey and Iran were vital and they attached great importance to maintain and enhance relations with Ankara and Tehran. 

Talabani dispatched Saleh to Ankara to brief Turkish officials about the summit meetings. The Americans also scheduled meetings with Turkish officials to evaluate the summits. 

Meanwhile, Talabani himself will travel to Tehran to inform the Iranians about the Frankfurt meetings. Barzani on the other hand will travel to Damascus on his way back to northern Iraq and meet Syrian officials including President Bashir Assad. 

Necirvan Barzani, the prime minister of the KDP regional government, has returned to northern Iraq via Turkey in recent days. The reports that he had shunned Turkey and returned home via Damascus proved to be wrong.