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Talabani expresses concern over Turkish,
Iranian troop build-up on the border
23.4.2006
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BAGHDAD, April
23, - President Jalal Talabani expressed his concern
on Sunday over reported Iranian and Turkish troop
concentrations on those countries’ borders with
Iraq.
Turkey has moved thousands of troops to the border
region in what its military said was an offensive
against Turkish Kurd guerrillas.
Iran has also reportedly moved forces to the border,
and last week shelled a mountainous region inside
Iraq used by Iranian Kurd fighters for infiltration
into Iran, according to Iraqi Kurd officials. There
were no reports of casualties from Friday’s
artillery and rocket barrage.
Talabani said that so far Iranian and Turkish forces
have stayed on their sides of the border.
But “I have expressed my concern over these
concentrations ... Iraq is a soveriegn independent
nation that won’t let other nations interfere in its
internal affairs,” he said at a press conference
with US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad in the northern
city of Erbil. |
Iraqi
President : Jalal Talabani, a Kurd
Photo: Military |
Turkey has called on the United States to crack down
on rebel bases in Kurdistan (northern Iraq), but US
commanders, struggling to battle Iraqi insurgents
elsewhere, have been extremely reticent to fight the
rebels, who are based in the remote mountain areas
in one of the few stable parts of the country.
Meanwhile, Khalilzad said planned talks between the
United States and Iran over stabilizing Iraq must
wait until an Iraqi government is formed. Talabani
said he would participate in any US-Iran talks.
“We see it as good that after an Iraqi government is
formed, this issue can take shape,” Khalilzad said.
“If the United States holds talks alone with Iran
without an Iraqi govenrment being formed, that would
certainly be a problem for the Iraqi government,”
the Afghan-born Khalilzad said, speaking in Dari.
Once the governmnent is formed, “we have no problem
with meetings with Iranian officials.”
Prime Minister-designate Jawad al-Maliki was tapped
on Saturday to put together a government and has 30
days to do so.
The talks _ a rare, direct high-level meeting
between the Iran and the United States _ are to deal
exclusively with calming the situation in Iraq,
where Iran holds enormous influence.
But Washington is under pressure to negotiate
directly with Tehran on the nuclear issue amid
rising tensions over Iran’s determination to push
ahead with uranium enrichment despite a U.N.
Security Council demand it stop the program.
AP
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