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Iraqi president says crisis with Turkey
has passed and Iraq situation better
14.11.2007
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November
14, 2007
KUWAIT CITY, Tensions between Iraq and Turkey
have subsided and relations are improving, asserted
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani in an interview with
a Kuwaiti newspaper Wednesday.
"The crisis with Turkey has passed," he told the
daily Alrai in an interview, without further
explanation, even as Turkish troops remain massed at
the Iraqi Kurdistan borders over the presence of
anti-Turkish rebel fighters in the Iraqi Kurdistan
region's
mountainous hinterland.
"I don't think there is any danger of a Turkish
invasion of (Iraqi) Kurdistan," Talabani, himself a
Kurd, told Egyptian government newspaper Al-Ahram.
His remark came as Turkish helicopters swooped into
Iraqi territory Wednesday firing on villages in
renewed efforts to dislodge the fighters of the
Turkey's Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, which has
been fighting for autonomy for Turkish Kurds since
1984.
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Iraqi President : Jalal Talabani, a Kurd |
Talabani, who began a four-day visit to Kuwait on
Wednesday, said conditions in war torn Iraq have
improved, but more efforts at national
reconciliation were needed to make the situation
last.
"The situation is better now. Most of the areas are
safe and many Iraqis are fighting terrorists," the
president said. He said Iraqis now see members of
al-Qaida as a "danger" to them.
He cautioned, however, that the execution of Sultan
Hashim al-Tai, a Saddam Hussein-era defense chief
sentenced to death for his role in Anfal campaigns
against the Kurds in the 1980s, would "harm the
general atmosphere and impede reconciliation
efforts."
Talabani also warned against the premature
withdrawal of U.S. forces, saying it could lead to
the fracturing of the country.
"When we complete building our armed forces and
police, coalition forces can pull out, maybe at the
end of next year," he told Alrai.
"But such a withdrawal now and under current
circumstances could lead to a sort of civil war, and
will not result in stability but into the
partitioning of Iraq into more than three entities."
he added.
The U.S. military says attacks around Iraq have
fallen to their lowest level since February 2006,
and U.S. military deaths are on the decline partly
due to a surge of nearly 30,000 troops sent by
President George W. Bush earlier this year.
www.ekurd.net
Although the streets of the capital are still not
entirely safe, Iraqis are venturing more out of
their homes. Many Sunni Iraqi fighters who belong to
Islamic insurgent groups have turned against al-Qaida
and are cooperating with American forces to drive
the extremists from their neighborhoods and
villages.
Talabani will meet with Kuwait's emir, Sheik Sabah
Al Ahmed Al Sabah, and ask that the oil-rich
neighbor which Saddam invaded in 1990 and occupied
for seven months, to "settle" Iraqi debts owed from
Saddam's time.
The Iraqi president did not specifically say he
wanted the US$15 billion worth of debts forgiven,
but the request has been made previously. Kuwait
says it is a matter for its parliament to decide.
AP | AFP
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