Thread: Archive Latest News - Think Tank - 16/08/07 - 03/11/07

Ankara rejects reported Syria mediation

Al-Mashhadani, who is on a five-day visit to Syria, also said Syria is considering mediating between Turkey and Iraq in an effort to end the crisis. Yet Turkish officials at the Foreign Ministry, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Today's Zaman on Friday that there is no such plan. "There is a plan for mediation, and it will be announced at the right time if the conditions are met," he said, following talks with Syrian President Bashar Assad and his deputy, Farouk al-Sharaa. Al-Mashhadani did not elaborate but said Assad expressed readiness to assume a positive role in solving the problem.

However, a senior Turkish official said, "A plan for Syria's mediation between Turkey and Iraq is out of question."
Al-Mashhadani said Iraq was "ready to do everything that would safeguard Turkish national security." He also expressed hope that Turkey would not pursue a military incursion, saying "a political peaceful solution is the best."

TODAY'S ZAMAN

Kurdistan President rules out War between PKK, Turkey

Baghdad, Oct 27, (VOI) – Iraq's Kurdistan President Massoud al-Barazani ruled out war between Turkey and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and said in a TV interview that Iraqi Kurds are not involved in the struggle between the Turkish government and Kurdish separatists.

"There is some progress towards pacification. Turks have failed to militarily solve this crisis for 23 years. They have to be aware that a political solution is the logical step now," al-Barazani told al-Arabiya TV yesterday, ruling out a traditional war in the Kurdistan region.

"Iraqi Kurds are not part of the current struggle between the Turkish government and the PKK, which is unwelcome by the Kurdistan region," al-Barazani indicated.

Describing the recent escalation of events as an "indication of the Turkish government's failure to resolve its domestic political problem with the PKK," al-Barazani said, "Turks will solve the crisis if they seek a political solution."

Expressing his sympathy with the Kurdish cause, al-Barazani said, "This does not justify PKK's activities and their use of violence." "There are over 50 million Kurds (all over the world). Could their rights be abolished because of accusations of terrorism against the PKK?" al-Barazani wondered.

When asked why Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga forces did not expel Kurdish militants from the region, al-Barazani said that Turkey asked Iraqi Kurds to do something that it failed to achieve itself.

"The PKK does not have any base, camp or office in any inhabited Kurdish city or village. If we send our Peshmerga forces to PKK's bases in Kurdistan's mountain areas, they will flee to Iranian or Turkish territories," according to the Kurdistan president.

Turkey has massed up to 100,000 troops along the frontier in preparation for a cross-border operation to crush about 3,000 guerrillas of the PKK, most recently blamed for attacks that killed 15 Turkish soldiers over two weeks ago.

The Turkish parliament approved a memorandum forwarded by the government allowing the Turkish army to hunt down members of the PKK, or Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan in Kurdish, in northern Iraq. Only 19 out of 555 legislators in the Turkish parliament voted against the proposal.

Turkey demanded the Iraqi government to hand over all PKK members as a prerequisite for solving the crisis and accused the regional government of lack of cooperation to combat PKK's activities in the Kurdish region.

Al-Barazani blamed some officials in the central Iraqi government, whom he said "are acting as if they were employed by the Turkish government." He further termed the stance of the Iraqi prime minister, the parliament and the presidency council as "positive."

http://www.aswataliraq.info/look/eng...=2&NrSection=1

Turkey yet to respond to Iraqi proposals on PKK

Baghdad, Oct 27, (VOI)- Turkey has yet to respond to the proposals made by the Iraqi delegation negotiating with Ankara means to defuse tension between the two countries over the presence of the Turkish outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in northern Iraq, an official statement said on Saturday.

"The delegation offered a set of practical solutions to combat and curb the activities of the Kurdistan Workers' Party fighters, but so far the delegation received no respond from the Turkish side," the Iraqi delegation negotiating the PKK's issue in Ankara said in a statement received by the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).

On Friday, Iraq and Turkey ended talks on means to defuse the tension between the two countries over attacks allegedly launched by PKK's fighters from bases in northern Iraq against Turkish targets.

The statement added that the Iraqi delegation proposed to set up committees to oversee and coordinates measures taken by Iraq, Turkey and the Multi-National Forces based in Iraq to curb the activities of the PKK.

The statement also expressed the Iraqi government's keenness to find a peaceful solution to the crisis, noting that "any Turkish incursion into northern Iraq would only complicate the crisis and destabilize the region."

On Thursday, a delegation of eleven high-ranking Iraqi government officials arrived in Ankara to negotiate the tension on Iraq border with Turkey.

The delegation included Defense Minister Abdul Qader al-Obiedi, National Security Minister Shirwan al-Waili and Kurdistan government's representative Karim Sinjari who is also the Interior Minister of Kurdistan region.

The Iraqi delegation's visit came after Ankara threatened to launch a cross-border attack to chase the Turkish outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) fighters hiding in the mountain areas in northern Iraq.

The Turkish parliament approved last Wednesday a memorandum forwarded by the government allowing the Turkish army to hunt down members of the PKK, or Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan in Kurdish, in northern Iraq. Only 19 out of 555 legislators in the Turkish parliament voted against the proposal.

Aswat Aliraq

Over 100 Iraqi troops poisoned in Baghdad

Baghdad, Oct 27, (VOI) – More than 100 Iraqi servicemen in Baghdad were poisoned during breakfast on Saturday morning and were taken to several ho****als in the Iraqi capital for treatment, an Iraqi official said.

"Over 100 Iraqi soldiers from a company affiliated with the army's 6th division, who are serving in the Green Zone, were poisoned this morning, but not fatally," Spokesman for the Baghdad security plan Brigadier Qasim Ata told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).

"More than half of those poisoned were released from ho****als after treatment," he added.

Ata did not provide further details of the type of food that soldiers had for breakfast or the staff responsible for the food supply, but said that investigation is currently underway.

Aswat Aliraq

Iraqi parliamentarians say Turkey does not want peace

Baghdad, Oct 27, (VOI) – Turkey's stance toward the Iraqi delegation that has been recently sent to Ankara to discuss the Kurdistan Workers Party's (PKK) crisis indicated a lack of desire for dialogue and peaceful solutions, an independent member of the Iraqi parliament said on Saturday.

"The Iraqi-Turkish crisis has shown the international community that Turkey is unwilling to adopt a peaceful solution or engage in objective and logical dialogue," MP Saffiyah al-Suheil told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI) over the phone.

"The international community and the Multi-National Force (MNF), which is bound by Security Council resolutions to protect Iraqi territories, including the Kurdistan region, have to take full responsibility (for the situation)," al-Suheil indicated.

Al-Suheil denounced what he described as the Turkish government's “offensive” reception of an Iraqi political delegation, in reference to the exclusion of Kurdish delegates whom she said were "representatives for the Iraqi government."

Describing Turkish demands on the Iraqi government for the arrest and extradition of PKK separatists in northern Iraq as "illogical and unattainable," the parliamentarian said that it is unfair to put the whole burden on the Iraqi government. "Turkey did not manage to solve the problem in a century and now it is asking Iraq to resolve it in days."

According to al-Suheil, "The PKK's crisis is a Turkish domestic problem. The Turkish parliament should have overcome the problem by acknowledging the rights of citizens."

Al-Suheil, a former member of former Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's Iraqi National List (INL), said that Iraq has to maintain good neighboring relations while handling the crisis without abandoning its democratic achievements.

A few days ago, a high-ranking official Iraqi delegation visited the Turkish capital in an attempt to defuse the crisis that erupted between the two countries following a PKK attack on Turkish targets that allegedly killed 15 soldiers over two weeks ago.

The delegation offered a set of practical solutions to combat and curb PKK's activities, but received no comment from the Turkish side," the delegation said in a statement received by VOI.

Adopting a similar stance to al-Suheil's, Ali al-Allaq, a member of parliament from the Islamic Daawa Party, said that Turkish officials "only listened" to the delegation's proposals, but did not negotiate or discuss the solutions.

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Washington "to order up to 50 Diplomats to fill Iraq Posts"

Washington

DPA POLITICS Iraq Conflicts US Washington "to order up to 50 diplomats to fill Iraq posts" Washington The US government is to order up to 50diplomats to fill vacant posts in Iraq in the first such large-scaleforced assignment since the Vietnam War, according to a report Saturday.

Up to 300 employees of the US State Department will on Monday be informed of their selection as "prime candidates" to fill the open positions, the Washington Post cited senior State Department official Harry K Thomas as saying.

It is expected that some of the candidates will volunteer for the posts. However in the event of some remaining unfilled by November 12, officials will decide who must report to the Baghdad embassy nextsummer, the report said.

According to Thomas, candidates would be permitted to decline an Iraq posting only on serious health grounds.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had signalled a possible shortfall in June, when she ordered that positions in Iraq be filled before any other State Department openings.

Her order followed a request by US Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker for the number and quality of economic and political officers in the country to be increased, according to the Post.

The report added that diplomats' union representatives had protested against such a "directed assignment". "Directing unarmed civilians who are untrained for combat into awar zone should be done on a voluntary basis," Steve Kashkett, Vice President of the American Foreign Service Association, told thenewspaper.

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No Turkish incursion in Iraq until after Bush talks, says general

DPA POLITICS Turkey Conflicts Iraq No Turkish incursion in Iraq until after Bush talks, says general Ankara/Baghdad Turkey will wait for the outcome of a November 5 meeting between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and US President George W Bush before deciding on a possible military offensive against Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq, Turkish media said Saturday.

Senior military official General Yasar Buyukanit was quoted as saying the Washington meeting would be "very important", and that a military incursion into northern Iraq was not imminent.

Meanwhile Erdogan criticised European Union nations for not doing enough to crack down on activists from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) operating in their countries.

Erdogan criticized European governments for not extraditing to Turkey senior members of the PKK, which the EU regards as a terrorist organization. PKK members are able to find refuge and financial aid in EU states, Erdogan said.

The Turkish leader was speaking following the failure Friday evening of talks in Ankara with a high-level Iraqi delegation aimed at resolving the crisis on Iraq's northern border, where at least 64 people have been killed in the past week in clashes between Turkish troops and PKK rebels.

Iraq hopes to dissuade Ankara from a full-scale military assault aimed at flushing out the PKK camps, calls for which are growing louder in Turkey.

In Baghdad, an official statement from the 11-member delegation tothe Ankara talks said it had offered a set of practical solutions to combat the activities of the PKK fighters, "but so far the delegation received no response from the Turkish side."

The delegation, headed by Defence Minister Abdul-Qader al-Obeidi and including representatives from the two main Iraqi Kurdish parties, met Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan and Interior Minister Besir Atalay in addition to conducting talks with Turkish military and security officials.

The statement added that the Iraqi side offered to set up special committees to oversee and coordinate measures taken by Iraq, Turkey and the multinational forces based in Iraq to curb the activities of the PKK.

"Any Turkish incursion into northern Iraq would only complicate the crisis and destabilize the region," read the statement, adding that Iraq is keen on finding a peaceful solution to the crisis.

Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Levent Bilman had on Friday evening however described the Iraqi proposals as "insufficient".

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Turkey rejects Iraq's PKK plan

Turkey says Iraq must hand over separatist Kurdish rebels and close their mountain bases in northern Iraq to prevent an escalation of cross-border violence.

Turkish officials Friday rejected a range of milder proposals from an Iraqi delegation visiting Ankara, the BBC reported Saturday.

The foreign ministry officials called the Iraqi team's proposals "sincere," but said more urgent action was need to avert a Turkish ground attack on the bases of the armed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, in northern Iraq.

The Iraqi team had suggested closing offices in northern Iraq related to PKK activities and disrupting the movement of PKK members, who are seeking greater autonomy for Kurds in Turkey.

Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek called every PKK member a "criminal" and gave the Iraqi team a list of the most wanted PKK members.

Turkish military aircraft Friday strafed PKK positions along the border after violence last weekend killed 12 Turkish soldiers and an estimated 23 PKK fighters. Another eight Turkish soldiers remain missing.

LexisNexis News - Latest News from over 4,000 sources, including newspapers, tv transcripts, wire services, magazines, journals.

State Dept.: Iraq not ready for oil deals

WASHINGTON, Oct. 26 A top U.S. State Department official said he's telling oil companies to stay out of Iraq until there's a national oil law, and urges Baghdad to move quicker on it.

"We continue to advise companies from outside of Iraq that they incur significant political and legal risk in signing any contracts with any party inside of Iraq before a national (oil) law package is passed by the Iraq parliament," said Lawrence Butler, deputy assistant secretary in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs.

A handful of companies have signed deals with the Kurdistan Regional Government, which has passed its own regional oil law, moves that has bolstered the wedge between it and the central government. Hunt Oil Corp. was the first U.S. firm to sign a deal, which created additional tension in Washington.

"These contracts have needlessly elevated tensions between the KRG and the central government who share a common interest in passage of a national hydrocarbons framework and revenue sharing laws," Butler, who oversees U.S. policy in Iraq, told an annual conference of U.S. and Arab policymakers.

A national law governing Iraq's vast oil and gas sector is before the Parliament's energy committee. It has been in there since the summer, and spent a year prior to that being negotiated.

It's stuck on disagreements between the Kurds, the central government and other parties and factions over the role of the national vs. regional/provincial governments in setting and executing oil policy, as well as the extent the oil sector should be privatized.

The oil framework law is accompanied by a revenue sharing law and laws reorganizing the role of the Ministry of Oil and reconstituting the Iraqi National Oil Company as part of the "package" Butler mentioned. Those three laws are further behind in the legislative process than the oil law.

The Bush administration insists the law will lead to national reconciliation, and is using legislative progress as a measure of the government's success.

The oil and natural gas reserves have international oil companies ready to jump at contracts.

"There are frustrations amongst many companies I deal with," Butler said, "with the pace of deliberations of the framework law and are concerned that the Kurdish regional government passed its own regional law in August and has signed a number of contracts before coming to an agreement with the central government on the framework of the national oil law."

State Dept.: Iraq not ready for oil deals : World

U.S. 'dissapointed' with Iraq oil law

WASHINGTON, Oct. 26 The United States is "disappointed" with Baghdad's pace of passing legislation such as the oil law, a top State Department official for Iraq said.

"We agree that Iraq cannot be won by military means alone," Lawrence Butler, deputy assistant secretary in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, said during a speech at the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations' annual Arab-U.S. Policymakers Conference.

"Candidly, we have been disappointed with the reconciliation efforts at the national level and the lack of passage of legislation such as de-Baathification laws or the hydrocarbon law package," he said. "And we continue to press that."

The de-Baathification law would reverse a post-invasion law that banned nearly all of Iraqis who were members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party from obtaining good jobs. Only the top officials would continue to be excluded according to the proposed law.

The hydrocarbons law package is four laws that would govern the oil and natural gas sector, decide how revenue is allocated, and the operations of the Ministry of Oil and Iraqi National Oil Company.

The oil law is stuck in Parliament after a year prior in negotiations between the Kurdistan Regional Government and central government officials. The roadblocks remain the same: what control with the federal, regional and provincial governments play in the oil strategy and how much access will private and foreign oil companies have.

The U.S. government is pushing hard for progress on the law, which they claim will lead to national reconciliation.

Kurds and some Shiites in government want a decentralized governance of the oil. Many others, especially the Sunnis, think a central strategy for the vast reserves is better. And a combination, as well as the oil unions, are very leery of reversing the nationalized model for the oil.

U.S. 'dissapointed' with Iraq oil law : World