U.S. official criticizes Iraqi Kurds
By OMAR SINAN, Associated Press Writer 56 minutes ago
CAIRO, Egypt - A U.S. official, in a television interview aired Saturday, blamed Kurdish authorities in northern
Iraq for raising tensions with neighboring Turkey recently.
David Satterfield, senior adviser to Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice, told the pan-Arab satellite channel Al-Arabiya that Iraqi Kurds are not doing enough to stop violence on Iraq's northern border with Turkey. He said the U.S. was mediating in talks between the Iraqis and Turks over the feud.
Earlier this month, Massoud Barzani, leader of the Kurdish autonomous region in northern Iraq, threatened that Iraq's Kurds would retaliate if Turkey persisted in "interfering" in Iraqi affairs, particularly regarding the oil-rich Kirkuk city. Ankara does not want to see Kirkuk under control of the Kurds, fearing that would strengthen them.
Barzani said Iraqi Kurds could strike back and intervene in Turkey's southeast where the region's Kurdish majority has been fighting for decades against Turkish security forces for autonomy.
The U.S. State Department has scolded Barzani over the threats.
"We have a dialogue, a trilateral dialogue" going on, to resolve the crisis, said Satterfield said who spoke from the Saudi capital, Riyadh,
He expressed U.S. concerns over the presence of the insurgent Kurdistan Workers Party, PKK, along the border between Iraq and Turkey, a close U.S. ally.
Ankara says the PKK use bases in northern Iraq to launch attacks into southern Turkey. Turkey is growing angry over the failure of U.S. and Iraqi forces to curb the attacks. The Turkish military claims as many as 3,800 rebels are based just across the border in Iraq and that as many as 2,300 more operate inside Turkey.
"The Kurdish leadership must do more to address this problem of terror and terrorism," Satterfield told Al-Arabiya.
More than 37,000 people have been killed in fighting between Turkish security forces and Kurdish rebels since 1984, most of them in the southeastern region bordering Iraq. Turkey fears that any moves toward greater independence for Kurds in northern Iraq could incite Turkey's own estimated 14 million Kurds to outright rebellion.
Turkish Gen. Yasar Buyukanit recently asked the government for a permission to attack Kurdish guerrillas inside Iraq, a request that has strained relations between Ankara and Washington.
Any Turkish military incursion into northern Iraq would put the already over-stretched U.S. military in the middle of a fight between two crucial partners, and Washington has urged Turkish restraint.