Kurdish leader urges U.S. to renew Iraq role

ANKARA (Oct 23, 1996 1:55 p.m. EDT) - Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani said on Wednesday he hoped Washington would take a greater role in ensuring security in northern Iraq, where clashes continued despite U.S. efforts to broker a ceasefire.

But hopes for any immediate cessation of hostilities were dashed after fighting near the main city of Arbil prevented a U.N. aid convoy from reaching the Talabani stronghold of Sulaimaniya.

"I think and hope that the (U.S.) role will be more active and more serious than it was," Talabani told Reuters in an interview.

"I want to see Americans ... engaged in a real effort for a real ceasefire for genuine peace in Iraqi Kurdistan, which is in the interest of everyone," he said.

After the latest spate of fighting began on August 31 -- with Baghdad intervening against Talabani to take the main Kurdish city Arbil -- the United States evacuated most of its employees in the area and the military command centre of an allied force protecting Kurds moved to Turkey from the region.

U.S. peace envoy Robert Pelletreau said earlier that in two days of talks he had reached agreement in principle with Talabani, leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), and Massoud Barzani of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) on a U.S.-sponsored truce. No details were announced.

An Iraqi government newspaper, Al-Jumhouriya, attacked the United States for its role as mediator: "Iraqi Kurds have experienced these arrangements during the last five years and America does not have anything new to offer."

Hours after Pelletreau concluded his meetings late on Tuesday, there were reports of skirmishes in the region, with the PUK capturing the towns of Ranya and Koy Sanjak.

Talabani blamed the KDP for the latest fighting.

"Even yesterday when I talked to (Turkish Foreign Minister Tansu) Ciller and Pelletreau they have no assurances from the Barzani side that he will agree," Talabani said. "When Barzani will agree, there will be a ceasefire."

A convoy due to take humanitarian goods to the PUK-held city of Sulaimaniya failed to get through due to the fighting and had to empty its load in Arbil, U.N. officials said.

"Because of these clashes and because we could not keep the trucks waiting indeterminately, we had to put everything in warehouses in Arbil," a U.N. food programme official told Reuters in the city. "The goods will go later."

KDP officials in Iraq accused the PUK of exploiting the still vague ceasefire agreement.

"The PUK is attacking with the logic that whatever territory they gain now is a bonus, given that the time of the ceasefire is not definite," said KDP Arbil representative Saad Abdullah.

"We are under a lot of pressure -- they are attacking constantly," Abdullah said. The PUK was around 40 km (25 miles) from Arbil and closing in from the north, east and southeast as KDP forces withdrew, dejected, witnesses said.

The KDP was digging in around Arbil to prevent an attack, Reuters reporter Osman Senkul said by telephone from the city.

PUK officials earlier said their aim was to cut roads to Arbil and take control of the city that way, rather than through a direct attack.

Numerous ceasefires between the two groups have been called and broken since fighting first flared up in late 1994.

Washington encouraged the Kurds to split from Baghdad after the 1991 Gulf War but has been powerless to stop a power struggle between the two Kurdish groups that has split the mountainous region in two.

Kurds Warm To Cease-Fire

By SUZAN FRASER Wednesday, October 23, 1996 9:41 am EDT

Associated Press Writer

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- The two warring Kurdish factions of northern Iraq have agreed in principle to a cease-fire and will hold more talks next week to narrow their differences, a U.S. envoy said today.

``Each side has accepted the principle of a cease-fire provided that the other side does as well and provided that supporting fire from the forces of Tehran and Baghdad also ceases,'' Robert Pelletreau said after talks with two rival Iraqi Kurdish leaders.

However, it was not clear when a cease-fire would go into effect, and fighting was reported continuing in northern Iraa.

The Iraqi-allied Kurdistan Democratic Party claimed today it was forced to retreat after its positions were attacked overnight by its Iranian-backed rivals, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.

``Thousands of Iranian soldiers conducted quite a heavy assault on us last night,'' KDP spokesman Fahik Nerwayi said. ``If they want a genuine cease-fire, they have to keep the Iranians out.''

An Associated Press photographer said the town of Kuysanjaq fell to the PUK today and KDP fighters were fleeing the area.

And the Turkish news agency Anatolia reported today that PUK forces regained control of the Dokan hydroelectric dam. The dam is 40 miles south of Sulaymaniyah, the second-largest Kurdish city.

Massoud Barzani, leader of Kurdistan Democratic Party, and Jalal Talabani, the leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, met separately with Pelletreau.

``The governments of Turkey, the United States and the United Kingdom now call on both sides to implement this cease-fire in place beginning immediately,'' Pelletreau said later. ``This means that each side will take defensive positions and not initiate firing or hostilities.''

He said the goal was to make a cease-fire permanent, and that further talks would take place in Ankara next week.

The latest turmoil in northern Iraq erupted when Barzani, aided by Baghdad's troops, took over northern Iraq in a move that triggered U.S. military strikes on Iraqi missile targets in early September.

Talabani retaliated two weeks ago and retook some of his lost towns.

Iraqi Kurds had the chance to maintain a de facto state in the north of the country under the protection of a U.S.-led allied airforce since the end of the 1991 Persian Gulf War. But a power struggle between Barzani and Talabani failed to make it stable.

Washington withdrew its mission, which worked as part of the allied air force from northern Iraq, last month because of security risks after Baghdad's intervention.

Americans have not decided if the mission will return to northern Iraq.

``We need to defer that until talks continue sometime next week'' U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense John White told reporters in Ankara today.

White is in Ankara to discuss defense issues with Turkish officials.

He dismissed speculation in the Turkish media that U.S. troops would be moved into northern Iraq to maintain peace in the region.

``We have no intention of basing U.S. forces in northern Iraq. We have not even contemplated such an eventuality,'' White said.

The deputy secretary said flights by the U.S.-led air force to patrol northern Iraq resumed recently. He did not elaborate, but the interruption reportedly follows the Turkish government's objection to flights with bomb-loaded fighter jets.

Iraq newspaper slams U.S.-backed Kurd peace talks 06:49 Oct 23, 1996

BAGHDAD, Oct 23 (Reuter) - An Iraqi government newspaper attacked the United States on Wednesday for its efforts to negotiate a truce between warring Kurdish factions in northern Iraq, saying Washington could only offer an interim solution.

Al-Jumhouriya newspaper said U.S. envoy Robert Pelletreau, who met faction leaders in Turkey this week, did not respond positively to demands made by Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) leader Massoud Barzani to end inter-Kurdish fighting.

``The only American option is interim arrangements for Iraq's north...Iraqi Kurds have experienced these arrangements during the last five years and America does not have anything new to offer,'' the paper said.

Pelletreau, U.S. assistant undersecretary of state for near eastern affairs, met separately this week with Barzani and rival Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) leader Jalal Talabani in a bid to broker a ceasefire between them. The two leaders agreed in principle to a truce, according to the U.S. envoy.

``Pelletreau, in his first meeting with Barzani, has not offered anything and has not responded to the latter's demands,'' Al-Jumhouriya said.

Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz on Tuesday also criticised Pelletreau's mission, blaming the United States for the Kurdish clashes.

Aziz said there should be dialogue between Baghdad and the two Kurdish parties and called for an end to foreign intervention by either the United States or Iran.

The KDP on Wednesday repeated an accusation that Iran had supported the PUK in its recent offensives.

The PUK recaptured the city of Sulaimaniya from the KDP this month, having lost it early in September after Baghdad sent tanks and troops to help Barzani take control of the major northern city of Arbil. Baghdad's intervention in the conflict prompted U.S. missile strikes on southern Iraq in September.