June
3, 2007
Erbil, Kurdistan region (Iraq), -- Iraq's
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki dismissed on Saturday
reports on long presence of U.S. forces in Iraq
similar to the South Korean model saying "it is
groundless as such issue is only decided by the
Iraqi people."
"We so far have not discussed setting up permanent
U.S. bases in Iraq," Maliki told reporters while
leaving the Kurdish capital Erbil after a
three-day-visit.
U.S. officials said that President Bush expected
that U.S. forces would keep presence in Iraq for
more than 50 years similar to the South Korean
model.
Asked about the Turkish military build-up near
Iraq's northern borders, al-Maliki replied "Our
brothers in Kurdistan and we, the Iraqi government,
reject using Iraqi territories to attack neighboring
nations but the Iraqi territories should also be
respected and we reject any threats directed towards
us." |
President of Iraq's Kurdistan autonomous region Massoud Barzani (R) speaks during a joint press
conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki
at Erbil airport. AFP June 2 2007 |
|
Iraq's Kurdistan President Massoud Barzani, who
was at the airport to see off Maliki, told reporters
"let the Turks say whatever they like to, but we
hope that Turkish threats will be merely elections
propaganda."
Barzani also said "we want to follow the way of
dialogue to solve problems as the threats style is
fully rejected."
Asked about the implementation of the constitutional
Article 140 on Kirkuk, Barzani replied "we discussed
that point among other issues and we agreed to carry
out the article according to the Iraqi
constitution."
Prime Minister Maliki arrived on Thursday to Erbil,
capital city of Kurdistan region which also includes
the Kurdish provinces of Duhuk and Sulaimaniyah.
Last Tuesday, Kurdistan Premier Nechirvan Barzani
ended several days' visit to Baghdad to discuss with
the central government issues to do with oil-rich
Kirkuk city’s status according to Article 140 of the
constitution, relations between Baghdad's government
and the Kurdistan administration, the status of the
Peshmerga (Kurdistan National Guard) and the draft
oil and gas law.
Kurds want to accelerate the implementation of
constitutional article 140, concerning normalizing
the situation in Kirkuk city, as it was before the
1970s, when the former regime, Kurds claim, lured
Arabs to settle in Kirkuk and drove Kurdish families
out of the city.
The step should be followed by a referendum in the
city to decide whether or not to join the three
other Kurdish provinces in the Kurdistan region by
the end of 2007. Non-Kurdish Iraqi political forces
are inclined to put off the issue until better
security prevails in the country.
Also, the draft oil and gas law, now under debate by
lawmakers in Baghdad, represents another deadlock
between Erbil and Baghdad. Kurdish leaders are
pressing for more power in relation to oil
investment inside the region, while Baghdad has
opted to control all investment contracts in the
country.
VOI
**
Kirkuk city is a Kurdistani city and it lies just
south border of the Kurdistan autonomous region and
it is not under the full control of Kurdistan
Regional Government administration, its population
is a mix of majority Kurds and minority of Arabs,
Turkmen.
The former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein forced
about 250,000 Kurdish residents to give up their
homes to Arabs in the 1970s, to "Arabize" the city
and the region's oil industry.
The Iraqi Constitution mandates that a referendum on
control of Kirkuk must be held by the end of 2007 to
decide whether the oil-rich Kurdish province should
be annexed to the safe semiautonomous Kurdistan
region in Iraq's north.
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