White House says Kurds can remain semi-autonomous

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Mon, Jan. 05, 2004

White House says Kurds can remain semi-autonomous
BY STEVEN R. WEISMAN
New York Times

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration has decided to let the Kurdish region remain semi-autonomous as part of a newly sovereign Iraq despite warnings from Iraq's neighbors and many Iraqis not to divide the country into ethnic states, American and Iraqi officials say.

The officials said their new position on the Kurdish area was effectively dictated by the Nov. 15 accord with Iraqi leaders that established June 30 as the target date for Iraqi self-rule. Such a rapid timetable, they said, has left no time to change the autonomy and unity of the Kurdish stronghold of the north, as many had originally wanted.

"Once we struck the Nov. 15 agreement, there was a realization that it was best not to touch too heavily on the status quo," said an administration official. "The big issue of federalism in the Kurdish context will have to wait for the Iraqis to resolve. For us to try to resolve it in a month or two is simply too much to attempt." (snip)

(snip) Indeed, the Bush administration plans to continue to press Iraq not to divide itself permanently along ethnic lines, officials say.

But many experts fear that once a Kurdish government is formalized, even temporarily, it will be hard to dislodge.
(snip/...)

http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/nation/7634455.htm

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. Now we know what the Kurds got for their trouble huh?

[truthisfreedom]

2. White House says Kurds can remain semi-conscious...

just like Saddam Hussein, on IV drugs.

[bowens43]

3. pay back for getting Saddam

[leftchick]

4. you got that right...

I wonder how much of that oil from the northern fields are prommised too?

[Ilsa]

5. Exactly! Funny how this announcement

comes a few weeks after SH is taken into custody. I wonder what else they asked for. Looks like they knew where SH was as early as Nov. 15.

[bowens43]

6. I guess my question would be

what authority does the Bush administration have the right to determine internal political structure of Iraq?

[Maeve]

7. The authority of the hand

Inside the puppet? :shrug:

[donsu]

8. here is another article with more background on the deal

http://www.sundayherald.com/39096

Saddam’s capture: was a deal brokered behind the scenes?

-snip-

The delegate further claimed that six months earlier the Kurds had discovered that Saddam’s wife was in the Tikrit area. This intelligence, most likely obtained by Qusrut Rasul Ali and his PUK special forces unit, was transferred to the Americans. The Kurds, however, are said to have never received any follow-up from the coalition forces on this vital tip-off and were furious.

-snip-

To show how serious they are, the two main Kurdish groups, the PUK and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), have decided to close ranks and set up a joint Kurdish administration, with jobs being divided between the two camps. They have made it clear to the Americans that their leadership has a responsibility to their constituency.

Last week Massoud Barzani, leader of the KDP, called for a revision of the power-transfer agreement signed between the US-led coalition and Iraq’s interim governing council to recognise “Kurdish rights”.
-snip-
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[Just Me]

9. A train wreck in the making,...

,...I hear the whistles a blowin',...

,...it may very well happen in the next few months,...

Man! I feel sorry for the democratic president that has to clean up this mess!!! It will take a democratic president to do it though.