Barazani: US had decided what to do, we were not informed
Iraq-USA, Politics, 11/28/2002

The chairman of the Kurdistani Democratic Party, Masoud al-Barazani, has announced that the US administration "had drawn plans concerning Iraq and did not brief the Iraqi opposition groups on them," stressing the refusal of these groups for any American military rule of Iraq after toppling the Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Together with the chairman of the Kurdistani National Federation, Jalal al-Talibani, al-Barazani met with the French minister of state for foreign affairs and with the minister of the interior in the context of the visit they are holding to France at the invitation of the speaker of the French Senate in order to take part in the conference held by the Kurdish Institute in France on the future of the Kurds in Iraq.

The assistant for the spokesman of the French foreign ministry said that the speaker of the French Senate "recalled the interest given by France to the previous situation of the Kurdish people and our commitment to Iraq's territorial security," noting the "priority given by France for the Iraqi regime's full implementation of the UN security council resolution no 1441" concerning inspection of the Iraqi weapons.

In a statement to the BBC, al-Barazani stressed " we cannot talk about toppling the regime ( of the Iraqi President Saddam Hussein ) without having an agreement on the alternative." He ruled out his party's participation in the military attack in the absence of a similar agreement. He added he wall not accept an American mandate or military leadership against Iraq and stressed that the "role of the soldiers is to defend the territories."

Al-Barazani said that the USA "has decided what it will do in Iraq without briefing precisely the Iraqi opposition about it." He said "if the US wants to ensure the security ( of the country) it has to listen to us."

Previous Stories:
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