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Subject: Key States Warn U.S. Over Kurds; Turkey, Iran, Syria Challenge U.S. Role<By
Date: Sun, 15 Nov 92 08:24:29 EST
Message-ID: <22.1992Nov15.082429@AmeriCast.com>

Key States Warn U.S. Over Kurds; Turkey, Iran, Syria Challenge
U.S. Role<By Caryle Murphy=Washington Post Foreign Service=

CAIRO, Nov. 14 - The foreign ministers of Turkey, Iran and Syria
issued a withering attack today on the new, independent adminis-
tration of Iraqi Kurdistan, signaling deepening difficulties for
key parts of the U.S. strategy in confronting Iraqi President
Saddam Hussein.

Meeting in Ankara at Turkey's request, the three officials issued
a veiled warning to the United States and its allies about their
intervention in northern Iraq to protect the Kurds from attacks
by Saddam's forces. The ministers said efforts "which may lead to
the disintegration of Iraq" would have "dangerous consequences
for regional peace."

Turkey, Syria and Iran all have significant Kurdish minorities
and have expressed fears that the growing autonomy of Kurds in
Iraq risks promoting new demands for self-rule by Kurds within
their own borders. Turkish Foreign Minister Hikmet Cetin, speak-
ing also for his counterparts, Iran's Ali Akbar Velayati and
Syria's Farouk Charaa, said the three countries attach "the ut-
most importance to the preservation of the territorial integrity
of Iraq . . . its political unity."

The three also challenged the legitimacy of a recent meeting in
Iraqi Kurdistan by exiled Iraqi opposition groups.

The ministers' meeting portends growing pressure on the United
States to halt its intervention, called Operation Provide Com-
fort, on behalf of the Iraqi Kurds. The United States last year
led the establishment of a security zone to shield the Kurds from
the Iraqi military, including air protection provided by allied
planes flying from a Turkish air base. Turkish permission for
those sorties expires in December, when the issue will be put to
a vote in Turkey's parliament. U.S.  officials had expressed
hopes recently that the vote could be put off indefinitely.

Many Turkish officials fear that the United States may have a
secret agenda to nurture a separate Kurdish state in northern
Iraq and at best is unwittingly creating the conditions for this
by protecting the Kurds. The United States has repeatedly said
that Iraq's territorial integrity must be preserved and that it
has intervened only for humanitarian purposes.

Another key U.S. ally in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia, stayed
away from today's meeting despite being invited by Turkey. Turkey
rebuffed requests by Iraq and the umbrella Iraqi opposition group
to attend.

Today's declarations by Iraq's neighbors - who also urged the
Iraqi government "to comply fully with all the relevant U.N.
Security Council resolutions" - are likely to be welcomed in
Baghdad as an indication of dissension in the international coal-
ition confronting it.

The broadside against the Kurdish administration in northern Iraq
will rumble like a thunderclap through Iraqi Kurdistan and exiled
Iraqi opposition groups. Iraqi Kurdistan depends not only on Tur-
key for cooperation in maintaining its Western military protec-
tion but on all three bordering states for basic supplies, which
have been tightly constricted by Iraq.

The Turkish, Syrian and Iranian ministers declared that they had
no intention of interfering in Iraq's internal affairs, and that
their consultations "are not against anyone" - but went on to re-
ject the Iraqi Kurdish parliament's Oct. 4 declaration favoring a
future federalized system in a democratic, pluralistic Iraq. The
Kurdish parliament was elected last May in an election judged ba-
sically fair by international observers.

The ministers also dismissed as unrepresentative a conference
held last month in Kurdistan by the Iraqi National Congress,
which comprises the majority of exiled Iraqi opposition groups.
That conference endorsed the concept of federalism in Iraq.

"We believe that the future political political structure of Iraq
must be decided only by the free choice and consent of all the
people of Iraq," Cetin said.

"Who can prove that what has been decided (at the opposition
conference) is on the basis of the will of the majority of the
people of Iraq?" Velayati asked.

Charaa, whose government blocked some Iraqis living in Damascus
from attending the opposition conference, said that its efforts
"might lead to dividing Iraq."

Velayati was particularly critical of the Iraqi Kurdish adminis-
tration. "It's a chaotic situation in northern Iraq," he said.
"Let's say there is no responsible government there, which can
deal properly with the difficulties which would be created in
that part of Iraq. . . . You don't know to whom you have to talk
about what is going on there."

The Iraqi National Congress, the umbrella group of Iraqi exiled
opposition organizations, had sought to attend today's meeting.
According to a draft of a letter to Turkish Prime Minister Suley-
man Demirel, asking for "consultations" with his government, the
congress said it shares "Turkey's concern for the territorial in-
tegrity of our countries and is firmly committed to the unity of
both our nations within their present boundaries.  "The federal
system envisaged as a model for the internal government structure
of a unified and pluralistic Iraq does not threaten this commit-
ment," the letter said. "Rather than divide, federalism will un-
ite, guaranteeing a strong central government with sovereignty
over subsidiary provinces."<02:22 11-15C9999-----

Copyright 1992, The Washington Post.  This story is from the
Washington Post's Capitol Edition On-Line and is not to be ar-
chived or redistributed.

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poration (usa@AmeriCast.COM)