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Kurds
Have No Desire for Independence: Iraqi Kurdish Leader
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| Barzani, left, and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan leader Jalal Talabani |
PARIS, November 29 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Turkey has no
need for concern as Iraqi Kurds have no desire for independence in
should Iraq's President Saddam Hussein be ousted, Kurdish leader Jalal
Talabani said Friday, November 29.
"The
Turks have no reason to be concerned as our proposals are based on the
framework of a federal state, including a central government,"
said Talabani who heads the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).
"Federalism
will in fact reunify a country which is divided into several
zones," said Talabani who is taking part in a conference in Paris
on the future of Iraq's Kurdish population, reported Agence
France-Presse (AFP).
The
notion of a federal state was decided in 1992 during a meeting of
Iraqi opposition parties in Salahuddin in the northern Iraqi Kurdish
enclave, he said.
Earlier
Friday, Talabani, along with Massoud Barzani, head of the Kurdistan
Democratic Party (KDP), met the EU's foreign policy chief Javier
Solana in Brussels where they called on the European Union to play a
greater role in both Kurdish and Iraqi affairs.
"We
want a greater EU role in our affairs and in Iraqi affairs, this was
the main message. We expressed our concerns to him about the
possibilities of an eventual conflict and we requested more
understanding from the EU to the situation in Iraq as a whole and to
the Kurdish issue in particular," the leaders' spokesman Hoshyar
Zebari said.
"In
this conference, we will try to make it more unified. This is the
intention of everybody. Everybody is engaged fully to see this
(conference) as a successful event, a major public event for the
world, to have a unified message, a unified position for a free,
democratic, pluralistic, federal and united Iraq," Zebari said.
It
was the Kurd leaders' first meeting with Solana who "proved to be
very understanding," Talabani said.
The
PUK and the KDP have joint control of the northern Iraqi Kurdish
enclave which has been off-limits to Baghdad since 1991 and is
protected by a U.S. and British-enforced no-fly zone.
Both
leaders are scheduled to attend a meeting of Iraq's divided opposition
in London on December 13-15. More than 50 political parties and
movements opposed to Saddam Hussein are expected to attend.
Talabani
said the conference would serve a vital purpose for airing and
clarifying several views about Iraq's future.
Barzani
and Talabani have previously expressed their desire to see a
democratic government replace Saddam's autocratic rule. But they have
also said they hoped war in the region could be averted.
"We
do not want to see war in Iraq, we don't want to see an invasion of
Iraq," Barzani said.
Barzani
said Wednesday, November 27, that Iraqi Kurds cannot back any attempt
to overthrow Saddam Hussein without a clear consensus on what
government would take his place, implicitly rejecting U.S. plans for
the set-up of a post-Saddam state.
"We
cannot speak of overthrowing the regime without coming to an agreement
on an alternative," said Barzani.
In
a radio interview with the BBC's Arab language news service, Barzani
spurned the idea of a prolonged U.S. military presence in the region,
thereby implicitly rejecting part of the secret U.S. plans.
He
also rejected the idea of having the military run the country -
another tenet of the reported U.S. plan. "The role of soldiers is
to defend the territory," Barzani said.
The
U.S. three-phase plan, US News and World Report reported
Monday, November 25, calls initially for military rule in Iraq under a
U.S. general with a sizable occupying force, followed by an
international civilian administration.
The
final phase would be a representative, multi-ethnic government that
rejects weapons of mass destruction, the weekly news magazine said,
quoting senior officials.
But
Barzani said the United States should instead consult with Iraqis and
the Kurdish leaders to put together a plan for the future of the
state. "If they want to ensure security, they should listen to
us," he said.
Barzani
also told BBC he opposed the formation of a provisional Iraqi
government, even though the idea has been supported by some opposition
leaders in exile.
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