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ARBIL, Iraq, Oct
22 (AFP) - 18h40 - Arab League Secretary General Amr
Mussa flew Saturday to the Kurdish city of Arbil in
Kurdistan (northern Iraq) for an historic visit to
the autonomous region, saying he had always been
close to Kurds.
Mussa's visit marked the recognition of Kurdish
autonomy on the territory of a member country, and
came just after his meeting with revered Iraqi
Shiite leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, also a
first by an Arab League chief.
"We have always understood the Kurdish people's
ambitions," Mussa told a press conference.
Kurdish journalists pressed him on the League's
position toward regional autonomy that has been
inscribed in the draft Iraqi constitution that was
put to a referendum on October 15 and appeared close
to approval.
The Arab League has been criticized for not
condemning persecution of Iraqi Kurds and Shiites
under the regime of Saddam Hussein, and for being
slow in helping the country rebuild after the US-led
invasion in March 2003.
But Mussa reminded Kurds that he had received their
regional president Massoud Barzani amid such
criticism in 2002, before Saddam was toppled from
power.
"I have never been removed from the Kurdish people,"
he said in Arbil, which he called the "capital" of
Kurdistan, and where he had come to pitch the
national reconciliation conference the League hopes
to organise.
The Arab League chief was to stay the night among
the Kurds and attend a session of their regional
parliament Sunday in a gesture filled with
symbolism.
Earlier Saturday, Mussa said Sistani had given the
plan his backing in the Shiite holy city of Najaf,
south of Baghdad.
Barzani termed the Arab League's mission "difficult
but not impossible."
"We are going to do our best, in cooperation with
our allies, to help this initiative succeed. It is
in our interest," he said.
Barzani also reassured Mussa that Kurds did not seek
to secede from the rest of the country, explaining
that they had chosen to be a part of a "federal and
democratic Iraq".
But the Kurdish leader took the same stand as
southern Shiites in demanding that a national
conference exclude "terrorists", in an apparent
reference to the Sunni-Arab backed insurgency.
"It is out of the question to invite terrorists and
those who do not believe in a political process in
Iraq," Barzani said.
AFP
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