From: joedees@bellsouth.net
Date: Tue Feb 12 2002 - 00:18:59 MST
On 9 Feb 2002 at 0:46, L' Ermit wrote:
Well, clearly, we engaged in the inter-faction negotiating I suggested, but we did it after
we pulled out the military assistance rug, rather than while maintaining it. OTOH, the
assistance we DO continue to provide them (the northern no-fly zone) and the de facto
autonomy that this has afforded them, seems to have reduced their desire to rebel for
full autonomy. To their assertion that they'd wanna know who was to follow Saddam, for
the successor could be worse, the obvious answer is that, were we to withdraw the
northern no-fly zone, they would quickly remember that NO ONE could be much worse.
But I don't think we'll do that any time soon.
>
> Given the recent assertions made here, I thought this might be of interest.
>
> Regards
>
> Hermit
>
> Source:
> [url]http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/meast/02/08/iraq.kurds.reut/index.html[/url]
> accessed 2002-02-09
>
> Iraq Kurds unconvinced U.S. has Saddam alternative
> February 8, 2002 Posted: 6:44 PM EST (2344 GMT)
>
> ISTANBUL, Turkey (Reuters) -- Kurds of northern Iraq need to see a better
> alternative to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein before they give their support
> to any U.S.-led attempt to overthrow him, two leaders of the region said on
> Friday.
>
> "For us the important thing is who is the alternative that will come in
> place of Saddam. First of all we have to know who the alternative is, if
> there is one," Massoud Barzani, leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party
> (KDP), told NTV in an interview.
>
> "And of course there is no guarantee that the alternative will be better
> than Saddam," he added.
>
> Northern Iraq has been outside Baghdad's direct control and protected by
> U.S. and British air patrols since after the end of the 1991 Gulf War.
>
> Washington has sponsored peace talks in the region to end fighting between
> Barzani's group and the rival Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, led by Jalal
> Talabani.
>
> Washington's hope is to forge the mountainous Kurdish north into a united
> bulwark against the Iraqi government.
>
> The two Kurdish leaders, whose "peshmerga" fighters once battled for control
> of the region, have been at peace for years now and speak from the same page
> on the possibility of a U.S. attempt to remove Saddam from power.
>
> "We do not know what will happen...we will not enter adventures whose end is
> unclear. In the same way we cannot support any project for change in which
> we do not see the alternative," Talabani told NTV.
>
> "We prefer the current situation to a change we could not accept. At least
> now Saddam is under international pressure and contained, alone and
> powerless and we are under international protection."
>
> Both acknowledged that much was out of their control as speculation
> increases that Washington may try to extend its "war on terrorism" from
> Afghanistan to Iraq.
>
> "If the US strikes Iraq there is nothing we can do," said Barzani. "But we
> will not be ordered by America or any others. We will not be a bargaining
> chip or tool of pressure to be used against Iraq."
>
> Both leaders stress that they see the future of their region within a united
> Iraq.
>
> That goes some way to allay fears of U.S. ally Turkey that turmoil in Iraq
> could spark an independent Kurdish state that would then spread violent
> nationalist sentiment among Turkey's own Kurdish citizens.
>
> Talabani said an independent Iraqi uprising against Saddam depended on an
> unlikely alliance among the country's different ethnic, political and
> religious groups.
>
> "I have to confess that achieving that balance is very difficult. That's why
> I see the government in Baghdad as lasting and change as not close without
> outside intervention. In other words change should not be expected without
> American intervention or invasion from outside," he said.
>
> He suggested that any U.S. action might be further away than many now
> expect. Turkish financial markets slid on Friday partly on worries that an
> attack was likely.
>
> U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney visits Turkey and other regional countries
> next month to garner support for U.S. policies.
>
> Turkey hosts U.S. and British jets that patrol northern Iraq and keeps its
> own military presence in the region, to Baghdad's fury, to attack northern
> Iraqi bases of its own Kurdish rebels.
>
>
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