14 December 2001, Volume  4, Number  41
By: David Nissman

Kurdish sources have informed the London-based Arabic newspaper "Al-Hayat" on 6 December that a popular delegation including Kurdish and Arab figures is on the way to Kurdistan to meet the leaders of Kurdish factions there. They say this is a reconciliation initiative within the framework of a united Iraq and aims to overcome conditions which have led to an estrangement between the Kurds in the north and Baghdad. 

According to the sources, the principle basis for the dialogue is Saddam
Husseyn's recent call and his assertion during his meeting with the Kurdish
politician Fuad Ma'ruf of the importance "of having our Kurdish people settle
on one view, make their choice by themselves, and maintain it for a long time
without letting whims change it." 

Husseyn had met earlier with members of the central committee and political
bureau of the pro-Baghdad Kurdistan Democratic Party, a wing not
recognized or accepted by the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) led by
Mas'ud Barzani, and had also stated the need for direct contact and dialogue. 

At the same time, he hinted at the connection of some Kurdish leaders with a
"foreign state." Recently "Al-Iraq" newspaper, which is published in Baghdad
by two Kurdish groups that cooperate with the central government,
commented on the dialogue requested by Saddam Husseyn. "The others
[Kurdish leaders in the north] must resort to reason and give precedence to
rational solutions over power and the lap of strangers." It warned the Kurds of
the Kurdistan Regional Government by quoting a Kurdish proverb: "Do not
eat the strangers' bread as this diminishes your stature. It is better to be naked
in your place than to be a pasha with strangers." 

On 11 December the "Kurdistan Observer" ran an AFP item mentioning that
the U.S. State Department has announced it had begun mediating a
long-running dispute between rival Kurdish groups in Kurdistan. 

A high-level team led by Ryan Crocker, deputy assistant secretary of state for
middle east affairs, is now in northern Iraq to mediate between the KDP and
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) at their request. State Department
spokesman Philip Reeker said Crocker's mission is aimed at demonstrating
"continued U.S. engagement with the Iraqi opposition, consultation with key
players on issues in northern Iraq, providing for direct discussion on the status
of reconciliation among the Iraqi Kurds and evaluating implementation of the
oil-for-food program in northern Iraq." 

The American visit to Iraqi Kurdistan has drawn fire from an Iraqi parliamentary deputy.Salim al-Kubaysi, head of the Arab and International Relations Committee, claimed that theU.S. team's trip constitutes "meddling in Iraq's internal affairs" and is a "flagrant violation of all international conventions," according to AFP on 11 December.