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Kurds aiming for final agreement next week Ecevit says Turkey prepares its defenses Trouble brews between Kurds/Islamic rebels in Iraq KDP and PUK Set to Seal Agreement on Implementing Four-Year-Old Peace Deal Kurds tell of Iraqi war ignored by outside world Iraq's Kurds Fear Results of U.S. Attack on Saddam Former US diplomat visits Iraqi Kurdistan Turkey's Kurdish party sees no ban before polls Al-Qaeda Surrogate Islamic Group in Southern Kurdistan Destroys Sufi Shrines Two Kurdish guerrillas killed in Southern Kurdistan Police Smash Immigrant Smuggling Ring Washington will not lay the groundwork for a "provisional government" Iraqi Kurds Fear Islamic Militant Group Attack by Islamist Radicals in Kurdistan Brings Kurdish Factions Closer Sweden Arrests Kurd in Immigrant "Honor Killing" Turkey set for November polls, EU reforms in doubt
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Kurdish leaders meet in north Iraq for first time in almost two yearsARBIL, (Southern Kurdistan), Sept 7 (AFP) The leaders of the two main Kurdish factions in northern Iraq met in the Kurdish-held region on Saturday for the first time in almost two years, one of the groups said.The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) said its leader Massud Barzani and Jalal Talabani, head of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), held talks in Salahadin, the KDP's headquarters. They held one-on-one talks before being joined by senior officials, the KDP said in a statement issued in Arbil, the main town of Iraqi Kurdistan, a region which has been outside Baghdad's control since 1991. Talabani briefed Barzani on the outcome of his recent tour of the United States, Europe and Turkey. The two leaders also discussed the "latest developments in the Kurdish region and in Iraq, as well as the peace process" brokered by the United States between their factions, the KDP said. The process has been stalled since September 1998 when they signed a peace accord in Washington aimed at halting a conflict in the mid-1990s that cost thousands of lives, fueled by a power struggle and dispute over tax revenues. Their latest meeting comes as Washington has been stepping up its threat to embark on military action to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. The United States is moving forward with its plans but the breakaway Iraqi Kurds will not seek independence if the Baghdad regime is ousted, Talabani said on his return from talks in Washington. He denied any US military presence in northern Iraq, which has been outside Baghdad's control and under the protection of a US-British enforced no-fly zone since the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf War. "The change of the (Iraqi) regime is the task of the Iraqi opposition with the support of international and regional powers," Talabani said during a visit to Ankara. On the ground, Kurdish sources and local residents arriving in Arbil said Saturday that the Iraqi army had withdrawn units massed on the edge of the Kurdish-held region. The pullback from
positions near Arbil was motivated by Baghdad's fears that soldiers could desert
to the region held by the Iraqi Kurdish opposition, according to the sources.
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