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Iranian troops deployed on Iraqi border: Kurds
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In recent days, Iranian troops, including the elite Revolutionary Guard, have been deployed... along the 2,000 kilometer (1,200 mile) border
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TEHRAN,
Aug 24 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Iran
is amassing troops on its border with Iraq in case a U.S. invasion
topples Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, two Kurdish parties said
Thursday August 22, 2002.
"Iranian
troops have returned to the positions they held during the (1980-1988)
Iran-Iraq
war," said the Revolutionary Union of Kurdistan (RUK) chief
Hussein Yazdanpana, who lives in the eastern city of Arbil, Agence
France-Presse (AFP) reported.
In
recent days, Iranian troops, including the elite Revolutionary Guard,
"have been deployed... along the 2,000 kilometer (1,200 mile)
border," he said.
Iran
has also closed its border crossing to the northern Iraqi Kurdish
enclave, he added.
Meanwhile,
a member of the rival Kurdish Democratic Party also confirmed Iranian
troops were amassing on the border.
The
KDP is one of two major Kurdish parties that control the
western-protected enclave in northern Iraq, which has been off-limits
to the Baghdad government since the end of the 1991 Gulf War.
On
Thursday, August 22, Secretary of the arbitrative Expediency Council,
Mohsen Rezaie, said that Iran should shake off its
"passivity" toward a possible U.S. attack on Iraq, since the
lives of Iraqi people were on the line, Islamic Republic News Agency
(IRNA) reported.
"It
is wrong to think that only America and the Iraqi President Saddam
Hussein are involved in this issue and that there is no third
party," Rezaie, who was the former head of the Islamic
Revolution's Guards Corps, said.
"The
front of the Iraqi people must not be ignored," he said, adding
"we must play an effective role in regional developments by
adopting an active diplomacy."
Iran
has added voice to an international opposition to a probable U.S.
attack on Iraq on grounds of trying to unseat Saddam.
Tehran
early this month announced that it will not admit any refugees in the
event of Washington's military action and will instead give them
assistance outside Iran's territory on Iraqi soil.
Interior
Minister Abdulwahed Moussavi- Lari said that the Islamic Republic
would make no repeat of the 1991 Persian Gulf War when Tehran admitted
more than one million Iraqi refugees, IRNA added.
The
country is heavily burdened with over two million Afghan refugees who
have been residing in Iran for over two decades.
Later
in Baghdad, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's elder son Uday said
Friday, August 23, 2002 that "The Iranians set up the
Islamic group called Jund al-Islam (Soldiers of Islam) which has not
the slightest connection with Islam but equally has no link with the
al-Qaeda network," Uday told his Youth T.V.’s network.
"It's
a straightforward Iranian trick. The Iranians know perfectly well that
Kurdistan is a Sunni Muslim region and the idea of transforming it
into a Shiite area is completely out of the question, so they must
find another game to play," he said.
Uday's
comments came after Kurdish rebel leader Jalal Talabani hinted earlier
this week that Baghdad might have links with a group of former Arab
volunteers from the war in Afghanistan who found refuge with a small
rival faction, the Islamic Movement of Iraqi Kurdistan (IMIK).
In
another development, Iraqi Trade Minister Mohammed Mehdi Saleh said
his country and NATO member Turkey, a key Muslim ally of the United
States, have agreed to seal a long-term cooperation pact similar to a
deal discussed between Baghdad and Moscow.
"This
proposal was accepted in principle. Work between the two sides will
begin over the details afterwards," Saleh said after a meeting
with Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit in Ankara.
He
said the deal will include cooperation in developing oil and natural
gas resources in Iraq.
Turkey
has also warned that the territorial integrity of its neighbor Iraq
should be preserved and warned breakaway Kurdish groups against moves
towards independence.
Much
to the discontent of Washington, Russia earlier this week confirmed it
was close to sealing an economic cooperation pact with Iraq, valued by
some at up to 40 billion dollars (euros).
On
the other hand, the U.S. military said in a statement that an Iraqi
missile guidance radar system targeted coalition aircraft in the
northern no-fly zone.
"Coalition
aircraft responded to the Iraqi attacks by firing on the radar
site," it said.
The
no-fly zone over northern Iraq, imposed after the Gulf War, is
enforced by U.S. and British aircraft operating from Incirlik Air Base
in Turkey.
In
Bahrain, official media said that Foreign Minister of Qatar, the Gulf
state seen as the most likely launch pad for any U.S. attack on Iraq,
is to visit Baghdad next week.
Sheikh
Hamad bin Jassem Al-Thani will travel to the Iraqi capital Monday,
August 26, 2002, the Qatar News Agency said, without giving any
details of the reason or agenda for his visit.
Iraqi
parliamentary speaker Saadun Hammadi also invited his Arab
counterparts set to attend the September 1 gathering of the Arab
Parliamentary Union in Baghdad to denounce U.S. plans to strike Iraq.
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