The Inevitable is Happening in Iraq

By Ilnur Cevik

September 28, 2007

For the past year we have been saying it is impossible to keep Iraq together under the current structure and that the country is falling apart. We said over an over again that the "glue" is not there to keep the country intact and that Turkey should make preparations for a plan on what it would do if Iraq disintegrated or was divided into three sections.

On Wednesday the U.S. Senate approved a Bosnia-style plan to divide Iraq on ethnic and religious lines, touted by backers as the sole hope of forging a federal state out of sectarian strife. Full Text

Kurds turn to Capitol Hill to open up travel, get more aid

By Kevin Bogardus

September 28, 2007

One of America ’s most reliable allies in the Iraq war, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), has turned to Congress for help in opening up northern Iraq to more investment and travel.

KRG representatives have been working with lawmakers to soften the State Department travel advisory for Iraq to acknowledge Kurdistan ’s relative safety. They argue that such a move would recognize the area’s greater stability and lead to more American involvement. Full Text

Thousands of Iraqi Arabs paid to leave Kirkuk

Agence France Presse

September 27, 2007

KIRKUK — Thousands of Iraqi Arabs have accepted financial compensation to leave the northern city of Kirkuk, which leaders of the autonomous Kurdish region are seeking to control, a minister said Thursday.

Around 2,000 Arabs living there had agreed to return to their home provinces under an initiative launched by the committee in charge of overseeing relations in Kirkuk , Environment Minister Nermeen Othman said. Full Text

KRG Minister of Human Rights talks about Anfal in Geneva

September 26, 2007

A joint delegation of the Iraqi Government and Kurdistan Regional Government’s Ministry of Human Rights headed by Dr. Shwan Aziz, the Kurdish minister of human rights, arrived in Geneva on September 24 to participate in the sixth session of the meetings of United Nations Human Rights Council.

In a phone call, Dr. Shwan told Kurdsat TV the meeting would be held three times a year. In each meeting, a group of 16 countries would participate after chosen via an electronic election. Full Text

KRG condemns Iranian shelling of border areas

Kurdistan Regional Government

Press Release

September 28, 2007

During the past few weeks the forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran have been shelling the border areas of the Kurdistan Region in Iraq . This shelling has resulted in the displacement of thousands of villagers, the disruption of their lives, and the destruction of several villages. It has also inflicted great loss and destruction and spread fear among the people of Kurdistan .

The KRG strongly condemns this unjust and unwarranted military action which contravenes international law and disregards neighbourly relations. It is a clear violation of the sovereignty of Iraq and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) considers it an act of aggression. Full Text

Iran shelling targets deeper inside northern Iraq : mayor

Agence France Presse

September 27, 2007

ARBIL, Iraq (AFP) — Iranian forces have shelled deeper into northern Iraq than previously, hitting targets in an area northeast of the city of Arbil , a local official said Thursday.

"The Iranian forces began their bombardments again on Wednesday evening targeting far away from the border," said Abdul Wahid Koani, mayor of the Kurdish Iraqi border town of Joman . Full Text

Iraq Kurdish region says new oil deals are legal

By Simon Webb

September 28, 2007

DUBAI, Sept 28 (Reuters) - Iraq's Kurdish regional government (KRG) said on Friday that oil and gas deals it has signed since February are legal, rejecting Baghdad's claim that the deals breach the country's law.

Iraq's cabinet agreed a draft law for dividing the world's third-largest oil reserves in February, but rows with the KRG, as well as objections from some Shi'ite and Sunni Arab politicians have slowed its progress. Full Text

Official Calls Kurd Oil Deal at Odds With Baghdad

By Alissa J. Rubin and Andrew E. Kramer

September 28, 2007

BAGHDAD, Sept. 27 — A senior State Department official in Baghdad acknowledged Thursday that the first American oil contract in Iraq, that of the Hunt Oil Company of Dallas with the Kurdistan Regional Government, was at cross purposes with the stated United States foreign policy of strengthening the country’s central government.

“We believe these contracts have needlessly elevated tensions between the K.R.G. and the national government of Iraq ,” the official said, referring to the Kurdistan Regional Government. The official was not authorized to speak for attribution on the oil contract.

The tensions between Kurdistan and the central government go well beyond the oil law. Already a semiautonomous region for more than 15 years, Kurdistan in many respects functions as independent state and wants as much latitude as possible to run its region. Recently, the Kurdistan government has pushed to extend its borders to include nearby areas that have sizable Kurdish populations. Full Text

Spokesman for Presidency of Kurdistan Region welcomes US Senate resolution on federalism in Iraq

28 Sep. 2007


Spokesman for the Presidency of the Kurdistan Region

The people and government of the Kurdistan Region welcome the adoption of the US Senate resolution calling for the rebuilding of the Iraqi state on the basis of federalism. This resolution conforms with the pillars of the Iraqi Constitution. A federal arrangement for the Iraqi state does not mean division, but rather voluntary union. It is the only viable solution to the problems of Iraq.

Federalism is the sound motor that will drive the construction of the new Iraq. It recognises, without exception, the rights and duties of all constituents in Iraq.

The people of Kurdistan, who have struggled for decades to achieve democracy and freedom, see in federalism the promise of stability and freedom from dictatorial regimes. We welcome this significant resolution in support of federalism, which guarantees the survival of Iraq on the basis of voluntary union.

Ahmadinejad at Columbia University

Ahmadinejad questions 9/11, Holocaust

Tuesday, 25 September 2007,

: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaks at Columbia University, New York, Monday, Sept. 24, 2007.

By NAHAL TOOSI, Associated Press Writer

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad defended Holocaust revisionists and raised questions about who carried out the Sept. 11 attacks in a tense showdown Monday at Columbia University, where the school's head introduced the hard-line leader by calling him a "petty and cruel dictator."

Ahmadinejad portrayed himself as an intellectual and argued that his administration respected reason and science. But the former engineering professor, appearing shaken and irate over he called "insults" from his host, soon found himself drawn into the type of rhetoric that has alienated American audiences in the past.

He provoked derisive laughter by responding to a question about Iran's execution of homosexuals by saying: "In Iran we don't have homosexuals like in your country ... I don't know who's told you that we have this."

Columbia's president, Lee Bollinger, set the combative tone in his introduction of Ahmadinejad: "Mr. President, you exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator."

Ahmadinejad retorted that Bollinger's opening was "an insult to information and the knowledge of the audience here."

"There were insults and claims that were incorrect, regretfully," Ahmadinejad said, accusing Bollinger of falling under the influence of the hostile U.S. press and politicians.

Ahmadinejad drew audience applause at times, such as when he bemoaned the plight of the Palestinians. But he often declined to offer the simple answers the audience sought, responding instead with his own questions or long statements about history and justice.

Ahmadinejad has in the past called for Israel's elimination. But his exact remarks have been disputed. Some translators say he called for Israel to be "wiped off the map," but others say that would be better translated as "vanish from the pages of time" - implying Israel would disappear on its own rather than be destroyed.

Asked by an audience member if Iran sought the destruction of Israel, Ahmadinejad did not answer directly.

"We are friends of all the nations," he said. "We are friends with the Jewish people. There are many Jews in Iran living peacefully with security."

Ahmadinejad's past statements about the Holocaust also have raised hackles in the West, and were soundly attacked by Bollinger.

"In a December 2005 state television broadcast, you described the Holocaust as the fabricated legend," Bollinger told Ahmadinejad said in his opening remarks. "One year later, you held a two-day conference of Holocaust deniers."

Bollinger said that might fool the illiterate and ignorant.

"When you come to a place like this, it makes you simply ridiculous. The truth is that the Holocaust is the most documented event in human history," he said.

Ahmadinejad said he wasn't passing judgment on whether the Holocaust occurred, but that, "assuming this happened, what does it have to do with the Palestinian people?"

He went on to say that he was defending the rights of European academics imprisoned for "questioning certain aspects" of the Holocaust, an apparent reference to a small number who have been prosecuted under national laws for denying or minimizing the genocide.

"There's nothing known as absolute," Ahmadinejad said. He said the Holocaust has been abused as a justification for Israeli mistreatment of the Palestinians.

"Why is it that the Palestinian people are paying the price for an event they had nothing to do with?" he asked.

Asked why he had asked to visit the World Trade Center site - a request denied by New York authorities - Ahmadinejad said he wanted to express sympathy for the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Then he appeared to question whether al-Qaida was responsible, saying more research was needed.

"If the root causes of 9/11 are examined properly - why it happened, what caused it, what were the conditions that led to it, who truly was involved, who was really involved - and put it all together to understand how to prevent the crisis in Iraq, fix the problem in Afghanistan and Iraq combined," Ahmadinejad said.

Bollinger drew strong criticism for inviting Ahmadinejad to Columbia and had promised tough questions in his introduction. But the stridency of his attack on the Iranian leader took many by surprise.

"You are either brazenly provocative or astonishingly uneducated," Bollinger told Ahmadinejad about the leader's Holocaust denial. "Will you cease this outrage?"

Bollinger's introduction was "very harsh," said Hamid Dabashi, a professor of Iranian studies at Columbia University.

"Inviting him and then turning around and alienating and insulting an entire nation whose representative this man happens to be is simply inappropriate," said Dabashi, who also criticized Ahmadinejad.

Instead of addressing most of Bollinger's accusations directly, Ahmadinejad offered quotes from the Quran and criticism of the Bush administration and past American governments, from warrant-less wiretapping to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan.

He closed his prepared remarks with a terse smile, to applause and boos, before taking questions from the audience.

In Iran, Ahmadinejad's appearance at Columbia could be seen on Arabic satellite channels and state television's Arabic-language service, but it did not appear on channels that broadcast in Farsi, the language of Iran.

Asked about his country's nuclear intentions, Ahmadinejad insisted the program is peaceful, legal and entirely within Iran's rights, despite attempts by "monopolistic," "selfish" powers to derail it. "How come is it that you have that right, and we can't have it?" he added.

President Bush said Ahmadinejad's appearance at Columbia "speaks volumes about, really, the greatness of America."

He told Fox News Channel that if Bollinger considered Ahmadinejad's visit an educational experience for Columbia students, "I guess it's OK with me."

But conservatives on Capitol Hill were critical. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut, said he thought the invitation to Ahmadinejad was a mistake "because he comes literally with blood on his hands."

Thousands of people jammed two blocks of 47th Street across from the United Nations to protest Ahmadinejad's visit to New York for the opening of the U.N. General Assembly session. Organizers claimed a turnout of tens of thousands. Police did not immediately have a crowd estimate.

The speakers, most of them politicians and officials from Jewish organizations, proclaimed their support for Israel and criticized the Iranian leader for his remarks questioning the Holocaust.

"We're here today to send a message that there is never a reason to give a hatemonger an open stage," New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said.

Hundreds of protesters also assembled at Columbia. Dozens stood near the lecture hall where Ahmadinejad was scheduled to speak, linking arms and singing traditional Jewish folk songs about peace and brotherhood. A two-person band nearby played "You Are My Sunshine."

Signs in the crowd displayed a range of messages, including one reading: "We refuse to choose between Islamic fundamentalism and American imperialism."

The auditorium itself was packed, and students waited hours to be allowed in amid tight security. While the audience booed and applauded several times, it was largely silent as the Iranian leader delivered his point of view.

Iraqi Kurdistan president urges enforcement of Kirkuk article

Tuesday, 25 September 2007,

Massoud Barzani, the President of the autonomous Regional Government of Kurdistan 'Iraq'.

DPA

Kirkuk, Iraq's border with Kurdistan region, -- Iraq's Kurds will not use force to reassert their rights in the northern Kurdish city of Kirkuk but want immediate implementation of a constitutional article to normalize the situation in the city, their leader said on Sunday.

Kurds took part in elections and the political process and voted for a permanent Iraqi constitution in order to to preserve their national and political rights,' the president of the northern Kurdistan autonomous Region, Massoud Barzani.

Speaking at the opening of the conference of the Iraqi Kurdistan students' union in Erbil, Barzani said the implementation of article 140 of the constitution has been held up by stalling, procastrination and foreign threats.

'But we will not accept any delay in its implementation for even a minute based on a political decision,' Barzani said.
Massoud Barzani, the President of the autonomous Regional Government of Kurdistan 'Iraq'

However, he hinted at the possibility of delaying implementation on technical grounds for a brief period. But only the parliament of the Kurdistan autonomous region would be empowered to endorse such a delay.

The future of the northern city of Kirkuk, which is seen as a microcosm of Iraq with its mix of several ethnicities, is a bone of contention between Kurds on the one hand and Sunni Arabs and Turkmen on the other.

The city has seen a surge in violence since the implementation of Iraq's new constitution in which the still-unenforced contentious article 140 outlines a three-step plan to reverse the Arabization policy of Saddam's regime. This policy was part of Saddam's campaign to push out the Kurds.

The constitution also provides for a census followed by a referendum to decide the future of the city to which the Turkmen and Arab populations are opposed.

Kurds, however, support it as it is likely to pave the way for the city to be integrated into the autonomous Kurdistan region.

DPA

* Kirkuk city is a Kurdistani city and it lies just south border of the Kurdistan autonomous region and it is not under the full control of Kurdistan Regional Government administration, its population is a mix of majority Kurds and minority of Arabs, Turkmen.

The former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein forced over 250,000 Kurdish residents to give up their homes to Arabs in the 1970s, to "Arabize" the city and the region's oil industry.

Based on Iraq's Constitution a referendum is to be held in late 2007 to decide whether the oil-rich Kurdish province should be annexed to the safe semiautonomous Kurdistan region in Iraq's north.

US Senate To vote On Iraq Division Plan

By Stephen Collinson
AFP Sep 25, 2007

The US Senate is expected to vote as early as Tuesday on a Bosnia-style plan to subdivide Iraq on ethnic lines, touted by backers as the sole hope of forging a federal state out of sectarian strife.

Though the measure is non-binding, and would not force a change in President George W. Bush's war strategy even if it passes, the vote will provide a key test of an idea drawing rising interest in Washington.

Advocates say the plan, championed by Democratic senator and presidential hopeful Joseph Biden, offers a route to a political solution in Iraq that could allow US troops to eventually go home without leaving chaos behind.

A loose autonomous federation of Kurdish, Shiite and Sunni entities might look good on paper, but critics charge it ignores Iraq's ethnic stew, such as cities where ethnic groups live side-by-side and inter-marry, and are not divided by lines on a map.

"Critics have come along and said 'I don't like your plan,'" Biden said, adding: "if you don't like Biden's proposal, what is your idea?"

The plan, drawn up with former Carter administration foreign policy expert Leslie Gelb, would provide for a federal system as permitted by Iraq's constitution, stop Iraq from becoming a failed state and:

- Separate Iraq into Kurdish, Shiite and Sunni entities, with a federal government in Baghdad in charge of border security and oil revenues.

- Aim to defuse sectarian violence by offering Sunnis a share of oil revenues.

- Boost reconstruction aid and debt relief.

- Launch an international diplomatic effort to rally the world's great powers and Iraq's neighbors to the new federation's cause.

The plan, offered as an amendment to a defense policy bill, already has achieved what many other Iraq war measures have failed to do: attract support from across the political chasm carved in Washington by the war.

Several Republicans, who back Bush's troop surge strategy, but bemoan political deadlock in Baghdad, have signed on.

"We have a flawed political design that we are pushing currently in Baghdad," said Republican presidential longshot Senator Sam Brownback, one of 11 co-sponsors of the bill.

Republican Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison looked for inspiration to the Dayton Peace Accords which led to the creation of a semi-autonomous Muslim-Croat federation and a Bosnian Serb Republic.

"I think what we have seen in Bosnia is a lessening of tensions when there is a capability for the security forces, the educational and the religious sects to have their own ability to govern within themselves," she said.

Critics, who have included the White House, have argued Biden plan is a recipe for more chaos in Iraq.

US ally Turkey would oppose such an initiative, fearful of unrest among its Kurdish population, they say, adding that a partitioned Iraq would lead outside powers like Iran and Saudi Arabia to bolster rival ethnic militia.

Other critics say frontier drawing in the Middle East by western powers has caused enough historical heartache, and it should be up to Iraqis to shape their future.

Some also say that partitioning Iraq, even if Baghdad remains whole, could encourage ethnic cleansing.

US ambassador to Baghdad Ryan Crocker backed devolving of power to Iraqi regions, but opposed a formal partition during an appearance in Congress this month.

"Baghdad, in spite of all of the violence it has seen and all of the population displacements, remains a very mixed city, Sunnis and Shia together," Crocker said.

"Any notion that that city of over five million people can be neatly divided up or painlessly cleansed of a huge number of people is just incorrect."

The bipartisan Iraq Study Group, which delivered recommendations in December warned partition could trigger mass population flows, the collapse of the fragile Iraqi security forces and ethnic cleansing by strengthened militias.

But Biden argued that all other options have failed, and says Iraq's ethnic groups are already separating.

"President Bush, and many Democrats continue to cling to choice number one," he said in a campaign mailing to supporters at the weekend, arguing US troops could not "build or force unity where none exists."

Kirkuk governor discusses Kirkuk

Friday, 15 August 2008,

A resident runs past a burning vehicle after a suicide bomb attack in Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, August 10, 2007. REUTERS/Slahaldeen Rasheed

The Globe- Erbil

Current Article 140 Committee making little headway, says the governor.

Kirkuk's governor, Abdul Rahman Mustafa, a Kurd, sheds light on the slow progress of implementing Article 140 and the situation of returned families.

Kirkuk Governor Abdul Rahman Mustafa said the process of implementing Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution is proceeding very slowly, similar to the situation when former Iraqi Cabinets were very sluggish in carrying out the article.

During Iyad Allawi's Cabinet (the first Iraqi Prime Minister after 2003), a committee was formed and headed by Hamid Majeed Musa to implement Article 140, but the committee made no headway, said Governor Mustafa.

The current Iraqi PM, Nouri al-Maliki, formed another committee, but it is disorganized and doesn't have the sufficient necessity to implement the article.

Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution, approved in 2005, makes provisions for the so-called "normalization" of Kirkuk. It calls for Arabs settled in Kirkuk under Saddam to return to their home provinces, while Kurds and Turkmen who were expelled are to be allowed to return.

Iraq's oil-rich northern dispute territory of Kirkuk

In the spring, the Baghdad government agreed to give Arab settlers about $15,000(USD), plus a plot of land in their places of origin, if they returned voluntarily.

At the end of last month, the Ministries Council of the Baghdad government appointed Basim Ra'ad as the new chairman of the Article 140 Committee after the former chairman, Hshim al-Shabaly, resigned from his post. Ra'ad is a former cadre of the Iraqi Communist Party.

Governor Mustafa hopes that the article will be in place on schedule so that the people of Kirkuk and other designated areas can live their lives in peace.

He believes that all current members of the committee are working their hardest to implement the article, but lack of necessity and the resignation of the two previous chairmen slowed down the process.

"Implementing Article 140 means correcting those mistakes and wrong policies made by the former regime of Saddam," said Governor Mustafa.

There is procrastination (by the government), and if this issue is not resolved, as I said before, all options are open....Frankly, I am not comfortable with the behavior and policy of the federal government on Kirkuk and Article 140

Barzani

The Globe discovered that 20 Kurdish families who had returned to Kirkuk have left again to other Kurdistan cities due to bad conditions in Kirkuk.

The Governor said that the Kirkuk governorate is using all its efforts to assist returning people and has fulfilled a lot of services for them, such as housing, water, and new schools.

"There is a lack of services still, but it is not only Kirkuk's situation; it is all of Iraq's situation due to lack of security and political crises," said the Governor, who urged returning families to be strong and stay in Kirkuk.

Governor Mustafa denied that the Kirkuk governorate let the Arabs from other cities come to Kirkuk and cause the security deterioration there. He said that the governorate already put tight security measures at the gates of Kirkuk city.

The President of Kurdistan Region, Massoud Barzani, lately warned of a "real civil war" if the central government does not implement the constitutional clause on the future of Kirkuk, the oil-rich city claimed by the Kurds.

Barzani, speaking in an interview with U.S.-funded Alhurra television, complained that the Baghdad government was dragging its feet on holding a referendum that could put Kirkuk under the control of the autonomous Kurdish region in the north.

"There is procrastination (by the government), and if this issue is not resolved, as I said before, all options are open....Frankly, I am not comfortable with the behavior and policy of the federal government on Kirkuk and Article 140," he said.

In partnership withthe Hewler Post

US says Iran smuggling missiles to Iraq

Monday, 24 September 2007,

An Iraqi soldier guards a blast site in Baghdad. The US military detained an Iranian in northern Iraq on suspicion of smuggling bombs on Thursday, sparking a new row with Iran which insisted the man held was part of a business delegation.

By SAMEER N. YACOUB,
Associated Press Writer

The U.S. military accused Iran on Sunday of smuggling surface-to-air missiles and other advanced weapons into Iraq for use against American troops.

The new allegations came as Iraqi leaders condemned the latest U.S. detention of an Iranian in northern Iraq, saying the man was in their country on official business.

Military spokesman Rear Adm. Mark Fox said U.S. troops were continuing to find Iranian-supplied weaponry including the Misagh 1, a portable surface-to-air missile that uses an infrared guidance system.

Other advanced Iranian weaponry found in Iraq includes the RPG-29 rocket-propelled grenade, 240 mm rockets and armor-piercing roadside bombs known as explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs, Fox said.

An American soldier was killed Saturday and another wounded when an EFP hit their patrol in eastern Baghdad, the military said.

Iran has denied U.S. allegations that it is smuggling weapons to Shiite militias in Iraq, a denial that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reiterated in an interview with CBS' "60 Minutes" aired Sunday.

"We don't need to do that. We are very much opposed to war and insecurity," said Ahmadinejad, who arrived in New York Sunday to attend the U.N. General Assembly. "The insecurity in Iraq is detrimental to our interests."

Tensions between Iran and the United States have worried Iraqi officials - many of whom are members of political parties with close ties to Tehran.

A 240 mm rocket was fired this month at the main U.S. headquarters base in Iraq, killing one person and wounding 11.

U.S. officials said the rocket was fired from a west Baghdad neighborhood controlled by Shiite militiamen.

On Thursday, U.S. troops arrested an Iranian in the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah. U.S. officials said he was a member of the elite Quds force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards that smuggles weapons into Iraq.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki condemned the Iranian's arrest, saying he understood the man, who has been identified as Mahmudi Farhadi, had been invited to Iraq.

"The government of Iraq is an elected one and sovereign. When it gives a visa, it is responsible for the visa," he told The Associated Press in an interview in New York. "We consider the arrest ... of this individual who holds an Iraqi visa and a (valid) passport to be unacceptable."

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, also demanded the Iranian's release.

The U.S. military said the suspect was being questioned about "his knowledge of, and involvement in," the transportation of EFPs and other roadside bombs from Iran into Iraq and "his facilitation of travel and training in Iran for Iraqi insurgents." The military said no decision had been made about whether to file charges.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said Farhadi was in charge of border transactions in western Iran and went to Iraq on an official invitation.

He said Iran expects the Iraqi government to provide security for Iranian nationals there and warned the arrest could affect relations between the two neighbors as well.

Iraqi authorities, meanwhile, said a shipment of chlorine had crossed the border from Jordan after concerns were raised about shortages of the chemical needed to prevent an outbreak of cholera from spreading.

Officials said earlier that as much as 100,000 tons of chlorine was being held up at the border for fear it would be hijacked and used in explosives. Several chlorine truck bombs blamed on suspected Sunni insurgents earlier this year killed scores of people.

Naeem al-Qabi, the deputy chief of Baghdad's municipal council, said warehouses in the capital were preparing to accept the chlorine, which would help purify water supplies.

"There is some administrative work needed to be done and it will be finished very soon," al-Qabi said.

Iraq now has a total of 1,652 confirmed cases of cholera after three new cases were confirmed in Salahuddin province, according to an update on the World Health Organization's Web site on Sunday. Earlier, cholera was confirmed in the provinces of Sulaimaniyah, Tamim and Irbil, as well as a case each in Baghdad and in Basra.

"As the weather cools and becomes more favorable for transmission, the organism is expected to spread to other provinces," the WHO's country office in Iraq said on its Web site.

Cholera is endemic to Iraq, with about 30 cases registered each year. The last major outbreak was in 1999, when 20 cases were discovered in one day.

Also Sunday, Iraq's minister of state for national security, Sherwan al-Waili, took over the security operations center in Basra as tensions rose in the southern city following the assassination of a local representative of Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

The region has been rocked by violence between rival Shiite militias linked to political parties, raising concerns about security as the British military has pulled back its troops from the city center to a nearby airport to allow Iraqi security forces to take over.

Al-Waili told reporters that he will temporarily head the operations center until a new security plan is implemented "very soon" in the city, 340 miles southeast of Baghdad.

Iran confirms shelling Kurdish PEJAK militants in Iraqi Kurdistan

Monday, 24 September 2007,

PIJAK Logo

AFP

Iran has confirmed for the first time it has been firing artillery shells on camps of Kurdish militants inside autonomous Kurdistan region 'northern Iraq', saying the local authorities had not listened to its warnings.

The militant Kurdish separatist group PEJAK -- linked to Turkey's outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) -- has been behind a string of deadly attacks on Iranian security forces in northwestern Iran in recent months.

"Some of their bases are 10 kilometres (six miles) deep inside Iraqi territory so this is part of our natural right to secure our borders," said General Yayha Rahim Safavi, military adviser to the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

"Of course we issued warnings to the Iraqi government and told them to take them (the rebels) away from the border and respect its obligations," Safavi said in an interview with Iran's English language channel Press TV late Saturday.

"But unfortunately the Kurdistan region, the northern part of Iraq, did not listen, so we feel entitled to target military bases of PEJAK and they have been under our artillery fire," he added, according to the channel's English translation.

Safavi, the former head of the elite Revolutionary Guards, gave no details of when the firing had taken place or if it was continuing.

Iraqi Kurdish officials said last month that hundreds of Iraqi Kurds had fled remote mountain villages near the country's eastern frontier after Iranian gunners targeted separatist guerrilla bases.

But Vice Foreign Minister Mehdi Mostafavi vehemently denied on September 3 that Iran had shelled rebel bases in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Safavi said that "groups of four to five" Kurdish militants from PEJAK (Party of Free Life of Kurdistan) at a time moved across the border from their bases in Iraqi Kurdistan to carry out attacks in mainly Kurdish western Iran (Iranian Kurdistan).

PEJAK, took up arms for self-rule in the country's mainly Kurdistan province northwestern of Iran. Half the members of PEJAK are women.

PEJAK is not labeled as 'terrorist' organisation, while PKK labled as "terrorist organisation" by Turkey, USA and the European Union.

"They set off bombs and they create insecurity. And I think it is part of our natural right to fight such rogue counter-revolutionary armed groups as they are creating insecurity."

Earlier this month, seven members of the Iranian security forces were killed in a shootout with "rebels" in the western province Kermanshah, which has a substantial Kurdish population.

Kurds Caught Up In US-Iran Tensions

Mark Tran and agencies Monday September 24, 2007 Guardian Unlimited

Iraqi Kurds today felt the squeeze from tensions between the US and Iran, as Tehran closed its border with the north of Iraq after US troops arrested an Iranian.
"Iran is setting up pressure in a bid to release its citizens detained by American (forces)," the Kurdistan trade minister, Mohammed Raouf, told Reuters.

US forces last week said they had arrested an Iranian they accused of smuggling roadside bombs into Iraq and training foreign fighters. The man was arrested in a raid by American soldiers on a hotel in Sulaimaniya, 160 miles north-east of Baghdad.

The US alleged that the man was a member of the Quds Force of Iran's Revolutionary Guards. Iranian and Iraqi officials said the man was a member of a trade delegation.
The US is still holding five Iranians in the Kurdish city of Irbil after their arrest earlier this year. By closing its borders, Iran is putting economic pressure on the Kurdish regional government, a close ally of the US.

Mr Raouf complained that the move would cost the Kurdish authorities about $1m (£500,000) dollars a day. "Closing the borders by Iran will create a spike in prices of imported commodities, like kerosene and foodstuffs," he said.

Mr Raouf also criticised Iran for closing the border during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, when prices were already higher.

Jamal Abdullah, a spokesman for the Kurdish government, told the Associated Press that Iran's move "will have a bad effect on the economic situation of the Kurdish government and will hurt the civilians as well".

"We are paying the price of what the Americans have done by arresting the Iranian."

The US has accused Iran of supporting Shia extremists as they target American troops in Iraq. In the latest allegations, a US military spokesman, Rear Admiral Mark Fox, said yesterday that Iran had smuggled advanced weapons into Iraq for use against American troops, including the Misagh 1, a portable surface-to-air missile that uses an infrared guidance system.

Iran has rejected US allegations that it is smuggling weapons to Shia militias in Iraq - a denial that the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, reiterated in an interview aired yesterday on the CBS programme, 60 Minutes.

"We don't need to do that. We are very much opposed to war and insecurity," said Mr Ahmadinejad, who arrived in New York yesterday for the UN general assembly. "The insecurity in Iraq is detrimental to our interests."

Tensions between Iran and the US have aroused concern among Iraqi officials - many of whom are members of political parties with close ties to Tehran.

The Iraqi president, Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, has also protested against the latest US arrest. Mr Talabani demanded the Iranian's release, warning the arrest could affect relations between the two neighbours.

Turkish General Warns US Over Developments In Southern Kurdistan

Turkish NTV
Sep 24, 2007
ANKARA -
A senior Turkish general has warned that the situation developing in Southern Kurdistan was giving power to the region’s Kurdish population. In an address to the Turkish Military Academy to mark the opening of the academic year, General Ilker Basbug, the commander of Turkey’s Land Forces, said that these developments in the north of Iraq were leading to the Kurds gaining political, legal, military and psychological powers that they never had in history. “The USA should by now understand that it is time to act on the PKK and that it should take the situation seriously,” Basbug said. The political decision makers and the public should come to a consensus over the threats that developments in Southern Kurdistan would create, he said, adding that Turkey might not be able to stop the developments in Iraq on its own but could prevent them and thus increase the costs. Basbug said that USA should understand that without gaining Turkey’s support it could not achieve a solution in Iraq. The general also touched the topical issue of the drafting of a new constitution for Turkey, saying that he was against the opening any debate about the secular nature of the Turkish nation. Claims that secularism was in conflict with democracy were lacking any firm basis, he said.
The enemy of the Turkish revolution inspired by Ataturk, the country’s founding father was fundamentalism and backwardness, he said. General Basbug said that the point that they wanted to focus on, which is clearly cited at the beginning of the constitution and article 24, that sacred beliefs of religion should not be used in state works, politics and to gain personal benefits or powers. “Taking religion out of its context and turning it into an ideology would politicise religion which would give the greatest damage to religion itself,” Basbug said.

Voice of America: Iran's Fifth Column

By Ali Ghaderi and Karim Abdian

Are American taxpayers unwittingly funding the Iranian regime’s own propaganda? Ali Ghaderi and Karim Abdian contend that US government-funded Voice of America Persia and Radio Farda are ultimately damaging to American interests. Not only do these broadcasting services have sympathy for the ruling theocracy, but their inherent Persian bias alienates Iranian ethnic and religious minorities. full text

Sir Salman Rushdie on Faith & Reason

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Shock Waves From Syria

Washington Post Editorial

September 20, 2007

THERE'S BEEN no official confirmation of the targets or results of an Israeli air raid in northeastern Syria on Sept. 6. Yet, like a subterranean explosion, the event is sending shock waves through the Middle East and beyond. Syria has protested to the United Nations, though it hasn't been very clear about what it's protesting. On Tuesday, a front-page editorial in Damascus 's main government-run newspaper criticized the United States for not condemning the attack. An Israeli newspaper, meanwhile, noted triumphantly that no nation other than North Korea had come to Syria 's defense, rhetorically or otherwise. Full Text

Kurdistan Capital Sets Example for Iraq

Associated Press

By Christopher Torchia

September 19, 2007

IRBIL — For anyone who has spent time in Baghdad , the most startling thing about a visit to Kurdistan's capital, Irbil , is that it resembles a city at peace, at least by Iraqi standards. The last bomb to hit Irbil was on May 9, when 14 people died in a suicide attack on a government building.

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Bush fears Hunt Oil deal will hurt Iraq

Dallas Morning News

By Jim Landers

September 21, 2007

WASHINGTON – President Bush expressed concern Thursday about whether Hunt Oil Co.'s search for oil in the Kurdish region of Iraq could undermine the national government in Baghdad . "I knew nothing about the deal. I need to know exactly how it happened," Mr. Bush said at a White House news conference. "To the extent that it does undermine the ability for the government to come up with an oil revenue-sharing plan that unifies the country, obviously I'm – if it undermines that, I'm concerned." Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's oil minister has called the deal with the Dallas-based oil company illegal. Negotiations over a national oil law that would divide Iraq 's oil revenue among regional and ethnic factions collapsed after the Kurds announced the Hunt exploration deal. Congress and the Bush administration see the law as a crucial benchmark for healing sectarian divisions in Iraqi politics. Qubad Talabani, Washington representative of the Kurdish Regional Government, said the deal would benefit all Iraqis through a revenue-sharing agreement approved by the Kurdish parliament in August. "What's undermining the government is the lack of progress on the [national] oil law," said Mr. Talabani, the son of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani. "This deal didn't undermine the oil law per se. It will give it a good kick up the backside to get the process moving forward."

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Burns visit deepens the gap between two allies

Turkish Daily News

By Jim Landers

September 21, 2007

A two-day visit to Turkey by a top American diplomat revealed the widening rift between the two long-time allies on many international issues, like Iran and Iraq . Nicholas Burns, undersecretary of the State Department, focused on restoring the “strategic cooperation” but could not get what he was seeking, the talks demonstrated.

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High Heels, Hating Saddam Are Part of Suleymania's Arty Aura

Bloomberg

By Michael Luongo
September 18, 2007 Sept. 19
(Bloomberg) --
Liquor-shop windows gleam at night with the amber glow of whiskey bottles. Women sport high heels, tight pants and hair unveiled. There's a freer spirit in Suleymania, the once and maybe future cultural capital of Iraqi Kurdistan. Prince Ibrahim Pasha Baban built Suleymania in 1784 as ``a place where Kurdish culture could flourish,'' Kurdish Cultural Minister Falakaddin Kakeyi told me. Now, Kakeyi says, this city of 800,000 in northern Iraq 's autonomous region of Kurdistan serves as a cultural beacon for the estimated 26 million Kurds scattered throughout Iraq , Turkey , Syria , Armenia and other places, the world's largest ethnic group without a country.

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