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| Iraq |
| Kurdish leader welcomes US bases in north Iraq |
| 2008-11-03 |
| A top Iraqi Kurdish leader has said the U.S. military could have bases in northern Iraq if Washington and Baghdad fail to sign the controversial security deal, a local newspaper reported Sunday. Massud Barzani, the president of northern Iraq's regional Kurdish administration, said that his government would "welcome" such a move, the Khabat, the newspaper run by Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party, quoted him as saying. "All the attempts are going right now to sign the pact, but if the pact is not signed and if U.S. asked to keep their troops in Kurdistan, I think the parliament, the people and government of Kurdistan will welcome this warmly," he said at the Centre of Strategy and International Study in Washington. Baghdad and Washington are currently engaged in drawn out negotiations over an arrangement that will determine the presence of American forces in Iraq beyond 2008 when the current U.N. mandate expires. Barzani has strongly backed the controversial security deal but the signing of the pact was delayed after the Iraqi cabinet decided to seek changes in the latest draft of the agreement. The Kurdish leader is currently in Washington for a series of talks with President George W. Bush and other American officials. Iraq expects a reply from the United States within days to its proposal for changes to the pact requiring U.S. troops to leave by the end of 2011, Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said on Saturday. "We expect by Tuesday or Wednesday next week to receive answers from the American side about the suggestions of amendments proposed by the Iraqi cabinet," Zebari said in a TV interview. "We are talking about a small space of time. It is not open ended, and every side is coming nearer to the moment of truth." U.S. embassy spokeswoman Susan Ziadeh said Washington was considering the Iraqi proposals and would respond shortly. Both countries appear to be moving quickly in a last-ditch scramble to save the pact, which was hammered out over months of intensive negotiations but hit a snag in October when Baghdad demanded changes just days after announcing a final text. Iraqi officials have said their proposed amendments would tighten the language demanding a pullout in three years, clarify circumstances under which U.S. troops could be tried in Iraqi courts, and ban U.S. attacks on Iraq's neighbors from its soil. |
| Posted by:Fred |