Iraqi
Kurds build factories, new roads
To
EU praises Turkey easing for 'positive signs'
PUK's
Letter to the Editor of The Daily Telegraph
Turkey
to ease emergency rule, paving way for EU
Iran,
Turkey crack down on illegal Iraqi immigrants
Kurdish
conditions for helping America to change Iraq’s regime
Report
on Iraqi Kurdish Leaders' Meeting With US Officials
Al-Hayat
June
2, 2002
Translated
Al-Hayat learned that leaders of the two major Kurdish parties held meetings in the United States last month, including meetings with US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and senior advisers to President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.
Kurdish sources refused to elaborate on these meetings, but said that Jalal Talbani, leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, and Mas'ud Barzani, leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, held a meeting with senior US officials, including representatives of the American Central Intelligence Agency, CIA, to coordinate political and military moves against the regime of President Saddam Hussein.
The sources added that the meeting between the two Kurdish leaders and a number of senior officials in the administration of President Bush, which followed a previous meeting that was held in Germany on 20 April, was designed to dispel Iraqi Kurds' fears about their situation should Washington carry out a massive military action against Baghdad.
The meeting was also aimed at clearing the air with the Turkish Government, especially the military wing of that government, which is skeptical about the Kurds' future intentions, the sources continued.
The Kurdish sources pointed out that there has been a radical shift in the US stand toward preparations for a US move on the Iraqi front. Thus, the sources added, the current US discussions with the opposition parties shifted from the consultation phase to the phase of working out specific scenarios of action that will achieve the US interests on the one hand and fulfill the Iraqi opposition forces' demands on the other.
Meanwhile, US sources specialized in Iraqi affairs said the US Administration expressed its displeasure with information leaked to the press by various wings in the administration and added that such information harms Bush's policy.
The same sources said they believe that the surprise visit to Irbil by the Turkish army deputy chief of staff two weeks ago during which the latter met with Barzani, was part of efforts to lessen the disagreements between Ankara and Barzani, as Washington desires.
The sources disclosed that at their meeting with the Kurdish leaders at the CIA headquarters in (Langly), the US officials called for reopening two CIA stations in Iraqi Kurdistan many years after they were closed following sharp disagreements between Barzani and Talbani in 1996. But, according to the same sources, the Kurdish side asked for US guarantees to protect the region in anticipation of an Iraqi retaliatory action.