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U.S. offers deploying its troops in Iraq's
disputed areas
18.11.2012 |
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November 18, 2012
ERBIL-Hewlêr, Kurdistan region 'Iraq',— An
informed Kurdish source said on Sunday, that
Washington entered on crisis line after Iraq forming
Dijla forces between Baghdad and Erbil to end it,
while offered to re-deploy the U.S. troops in the
disputed areas and considered the armed clash with
Kurdish Peshmerga troops as a “red line."
The source said in remarks quoted by a Kuwaiti
newspaper, that" U.S. diplomats in Baghdad have
begun contacts and meetings with the two parties,
(Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki )and (Kurdistan
Region’s President Massoud Barzani) to end the
problem and reach a joint agreement to manage the
disputed areas," Shafaq news reported.
"One of the submitted solutions is to re-deploy the
U.S. forces in the disputed areas to ensure there
are no clashes between the army and between the
Kurdish Peshmerga", adding that "al-Maliki rejected
this proposal."
He added that "Washington does not oppose to
re-deploy its military forces in the region if the
disputes parties wanted that," stressing that "U.S.
Vice President , Joe Biden responsible of the Iraqi
file is excited for this step because the U.S.
administration will not allow the outbreak of any
fighting between Baghdad forces and Erbil forces on
the basis that any development represents a severe
strike to the United States, which supported the
political process in Iraq for nearly ten years,"
The source pointed out that "Biden told Maliki that
the armed clash with Kurdish Peshmerga is a red
line", warning that "U.S. forces will intervene in
the event of the outbreak of fighting in Kirkuk and
any other area."
"The U.S. National Security Chancellery is convinced
that the movements of al-Maliki to impose his
military control on Kurdistan is due to the Iranian
and Syrian regimes," adding that "moving in this
period under the name of Dijla Operations Command
established by Iraqi Prime Minister aims to
undermine the Turkish influence and countries in the
Gulf Cooperation Council’s influence,www.ekurd.net
which has grown dramatically in Kurdistan Region
recently,"
The president of Iraq's Kurdistan region has ordered
its Peshmerga security forces on
high
alert, a statement issued on Saturday
said, attributing the move to clashes with central
government forces.
An Iraqi general however said that the clashes in
question came during an arrest attempt and did not
involve the Peshmerga.
The disputed areas between Erbil and Baghdad
witnessed major security tensions after Iraqi
government announced the formation of Dijla
Operations Command, which has subjected the army and
police forces in Kirkuk, Diyala and Salahuddin
provinces and Erbil’s rejection of these forces
because no one discussed the matter with it when it
was formed.
Tuz Khurmatu, on Friday
witnessed fierce clashes between Kurdish Peshmerga
forces and Iraqi Tigris (Dijla) Operations troops,
during which Two people were killed and 10 others
wounded.
The clashes erupted in Tuz Khurmatu district in
Salahuddin province when Iraqi soldiers attempted to
search a house belonging to a Kurdish official Goran
Najam,www.ekurd.net
a member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan PUK,
officials said. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani is
the current leader of the PUK, Reuters reported.
The ethnically mixed town of Tuz Khurmato is part an
area claimed by the semiautonomous region of
Kurdistan and by the Baghdad government.
The oil-rich province of Kirkuk is one of the most disputed areas by the
regional government and the Iraqi government in Baghdad.
The Kurds are seeking to integrate the province into the semi-autonomous
Kurdistan Region clamming it to be historically a Kurdish city, it lies just
south border of the Kurdistan autonomous region, the population is a mix of
majority Kurds and minority of Arabs, Christians and Turkmen, lies 250 km
northeast of Baghdad.
Kurds have a strong cultural and emotional
attachment to Kirkuk, which they call "the Kurdish
Jerusalem." Kurds see it as the rightful and
perfect capital of an autonomous Kurdistan state.
Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution is related to
the normalization of the situation in Kirkuk city
and other disputed areas through having back its
Kurdish inhabitants and repatriating the Arabs
relocated in the city during the former regime’s
time to their original provinces in central and
southern Iraq.
The article also calls for conducting a census to be
followed by a referendum to let the inhabitants
decide whether they would like Kirkuk to be annexed
to the autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region or having
it as an independent province.
The former regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein
had forced over 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 last ethnic-breakdown census in Iraq was
conducted in 1957, well before Saddam began his
program to move Arabs to Kirkuk. That count showed
178,000 Kurds, 48,000 Turkomen, 43,000 Arabs and
10,000 Assyrian-Chaldean Christians living in the
city.
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author or news agency,
Ekurd.net | shafaaq.com | AFP |
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