Iraqi Jash To Meet U.S. Official

[kurd-l at burn.ucsd.edu]

From: Arm The Spirit <ats at etext.org>

Saddam's Kurdish ally to meet with U.S. official

September 17, 1996
                                                      
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- In a possible sign of a rift
within the Iraqi camp, the Kurdish leader who
invited Saddam Hussein's forces into northern Iraq
will meet this week with a high-ranking U.S.
official.

A meeting is planned Thursday between Massoud
Barzani and Robert Pelletreau, the U.S. assistant
secretary of state for near eastern affairs, the
State Department said.

It is hoped talks with rival Kurdish leader Jalal
Talabani can also be arranged in the future, the
State Department said Tuesday.

"Our objective is to have Mr. Barzani
and Mr. Talabani agree to talk about
their differences peacefully and across from one
another at the negotiating table," State
Department spokesman Nicholas Burns said.

Washington moved to resume its diplomatic activity
after receiving a letter from Barzani more than a
week ago, Burns said. The U.S. had been working
for years to bring the two main Kurdish factions
in northern Iraq into political reconciliation.
Those talks broke down last month, and the two
sides resumed fighting.

Pelletreau "will certainly repeat the advice
privately that we have tried to give Mr. Barzani
and Mr. Talabani in public and that is that Mr.
Barzani's relationship with Saddam Hussein cannot
be in the long term interest of his people or
himself," Burns added.

Iraqi opposition sources say Washington intends to
tell Barzani to renounce any political deal with
Saddam Hussein, in order to continue receiving
U.S. military, economic and humanitarian aid.

For his part, Barzani plans to tell the 
United States he is not interested in
further deals with Iraq, a spokesman for Barzani's
Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) said Tuesday.

Barzani would also ask that the U.S.-led allied
air operation to protect northern Iraq from
Baghdad's troops be continued, according to
London-based spokesman Dilshad Miran.

"It was a one-off deal with the Iraqi government,"
Miran said.

The State Department did not say where Thursday's
meeting would be held, but the Iraqi opposition
sources said it most likely would be held in the
Turkish capital Ankara.

The Kurdish opposition sources have
met repeatedly with U.S. officials
since the Pentagon sent cruise missiles against
Iraqi military installations earlier this month.
The U.S. took action when Barzani's forces, backed
by Baghdad, seized control of northern Iraq.

Within northern Iraq, it appears unclear just who
is in charge. Kurdish authorities display some
autonomy, but Baghdad can reward or chastise them
by playing with the supply and price of
electricity and fuel.

An Iraqi government-organized press trip from
Baghdad was turned back Sunday from the Kurds'
chosen capital Irbil, with notebooks empty and
cameras untouched.

But fear of Iraqi secret agents have made refugees
out of the Kurdish region's elite. Local employees
of the U.S. have been following the American
staff, fleeing Iraq with their families.

Some international aid workers leaving under
orders from home are angry at U.S. policy. They
say the ones who will be left will be the
helpless, those who most need the services of the
aid workers who are gone.



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