Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro de la Prensa-Basm Özeti
u.s. Plans Talks for
Kurdish Groups
. By SLOBODAN LEKIC
Associated Press Writer
Friday, April4, 19975:37 pm EST
WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.s. mediators have arranged
.for rival Kurdish factions to meet this month in effort
to .end their yearlong conflict in northern Iraq, the
State Department said Friday.
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Acting Assistant S~cretary of State David Walsh and
•Bob Deutsch, the department's regionaloffice director,
held talks Thursday and Friday with leaders of the
principal factions in the area, spokesman Nicholas
Burns said.
The leaders included Massoud Barzani, head of the
Kurdistan Democratic Party, which has maintained
sporadic ties with Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, and
Jalal Talabani of the Iran-backed Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan .
"All sides agreed on the need for early and rapid
preparation for a next high-level meeting in Ankara in
the ... next couple of weeks," Burns said. The
spokesman said he could not predict who would
attend the meeting.
Iraq on Thursday denounced the diplomats' visit as an
act of aggression and interference in its affairs.
Baghdad accuses Washington of pressuring the two
parties to stay outside of the central government's
control as part of what it sees as a conspiracy against
Sadam Hussein's regime.
With the help of Iraq's army, the KDP drove the PUK
out of portions of northern Iraq in August.
The two sides signed a U.S.-brokered cease-fire in
October. But the subsequent talks in Ankara, Turkey,
were stalled by the killing of a top KDP official. .
The United States, Turkey, and Britain have been
mediating between the groups since the yearlong
hostilities ended.
A de-facto Kurdish state was formed in northern Iraq
after the Gulf War, protected by U.S., British and
French war planes.
@ Copyright 1997 The Associated Press
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