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In another play for
post-election power, a senior Kurdish official said
a Kurd should be made either president or prime
minister following the polls.
``We have the right to ask for one of the (two) top
positions in the government after the elections and
we insist on taking one of them,'' Arsalan Biez, a
member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan's
political bureau, said from the northeastern city of
Sulaimaniyah, 162 miles northeast of Baghdad. ``We
are as a nation like other world's nations, and we
must receive our rights and demands.''
Kurds are estimated to number between 15 percent and
20 percent of the population and have enjoyed
regional self-rule in the north since 1991. Kurdish
statehood aspirations have alarmed neighboring
Turkey, Syria and Iran, which fear that granting
Iraqi Kurds an ethnic enclave could incite
separatist sentiments among Kurdish minorities
within their own borders.
Iran, meanwhile, rejected accusations that it was
trying to influence the vote in neighboring Iraq,
saying the Iraqi people have made clear they won't
take orders from abroad, state media reported.
``The Iraqi people have a shining record in fighting
foreign exploitation and occupation and have proven
that they won't accept foreign domination,'' Foreign
Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza was quoted by the
official Islamic Republic News Agency as saying.
He was reacting to comments Wednesday by interim
Iraqi President Ghazi al-Yawer and Jordan's King
Abdullah II, both Sunni Muslims, in which they
accused overwhelmingly Shiite Iran of trying to
influence the outcome of the election.
``Unfortunately, some political currents in Iraq
seek to tarnish the trend of elections there and
cause concern in the public opinion,'' Asefi said.
Meanwhile, the U.S. general directing Iraq's
reconstruction said the military is working as fast
as possible to return tens of thousands of people
displaced by recent fighting in Fallujah.
``We want to make sure conditions are safe, healthy
and will allow the people to move back in quickly,''
said Brig. Gen. Thomas Bostick, commander of the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers-Gulf Region.
In a move sure to gladden U.S.-led military
commanders, Japan extended the deployment of its
troops in Iraq.
Japan's Cabinet on Thursday approved a plan to keep
its 550 non-combat troops in southern Iraq for
another year. The current mission, focussing on
water purification and other reconstruction
projects, had been scheduled to expire Dec. 14.
Associated Press
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