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 By Abdel Hamid Zebari Arbil, Iraq (AFP) Oct 12, 2017
Iraq's prime minister on Thursday denied an attack on the Kurds was imminent, in a bid to defuse tensions that had prompted Kurdish peshmerga fighters to temporarily seal off road links with the rest of the country. "We are not going to use our army to fight our people or to make war on our Kurdish citizens or others," Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said. "Our duty is to preserve the unity of our country, to implement the constitution, and to protect citizens and national forces," he told a meeting of tribal leaders in the western province of Anbar, where Iraqi security forces are battling to seize the Islamic State (IS) group's last bastion in the country. The rise in tensions came two weeks after Kurdish voters overwhelmingly backed independence in a non-binding referendum that the central government condemned as illegal. Iraqi Kurdish forces closed the two main roads connecting Arbil and Dohuk with the northern city of Mosul for several hours, a Kurdish military official said. "The closure was prompted by fears of a possible attack by Iraqi forces on the disputed areas," held by Kurdish forces but outside the autonomous Kurdish region in the north of the country, the official said. Kurdish authorities said late Wednesday they feared Iraqi government forces and allied paramilitary units were gearing up to launch an assault on the autonomous region. "We're receiving dangerous messages that the Hashed al-Shaabi (paramilitary forces) and federal police are preparing a major attack from the southwest of Kirkuk and north of Mosul against Kurdistan," the Kurdistan Regional Government's Security Council said. - 'Fighting a single enemy' - Security sources said Thursday that Iraq's elite Counter Terrorism Service and Rapid Response Force had deployed more forces near peshmerga positions around Rashad, a village some 65 kilometres (40 miles) southwest of Kirkuk city. The oil-rich province of the same name, areas of which took part in the referendum, is disputed between the Kurds and Baghdad. On a conciliatory note, Iraqi Kurdish leader Massud Barzani's government reached out to Abadi. It reiterated that it was "ready for dialogue and negotiations, based on the constitution, on border posts, internal trade, citizens' services, banking and airports". For its part, Iraq's Joint Operations Command, which groups all pro-government forces, played down the tensions, expressing confidence that dialogue would resolve the problem. "Our mission is clear: we are fighting a single enemy, Daesh," Brigadier General Yahiya Rassul said, using an Arabic acronym for IS. "All that interests Iraqis... is to liberate our country and beat the terrorist group," he said. "We do not forget the role played by the peshmerga." He said Iraqi government forces had previously operated close to peshmerga lines near the northern city of Tal Afar. Asked if there had been movements of Iraqi forces close to peshmerga positions, Colonel Ryan Dillon, spokesman for the US-led coalition battling IS in Syria and Iraq, said: "We don't see that." The coalition has worked with both peshmerga and Iraqi pro-government forces in the battle to oust IS from areas of Iraq it seized in mid-2014. "Our mission is clear -- to defeat Daesh," Dillon said. "We have done that throughout Iraq. We will support the Iraqis in the same way we have in the last three years to make sure that Daesh is defeated". - Ties cut - Central authorities severed ties between the Kurdish autonomous region and the outside world after the referendum by cutting international air links. Neighbouring Turkey and Iran, which fear that Iraqi Kurdish moves towards independence could fuel demands from their own sizeable Kurdish communities, have also threatened to close their borders to oil exports. An Iraqi court on Wednesday ordered the arrest of senior Kurdish officials responsible for organising the referendum, saying they had done so "in contravention of a ruling by the Iraqi supreme court". The warrant is likely to prove toothless as Baghdad's security forces do not operate inside Kurdistan, but it could stop the officials leaving the region. Iraq has also launched a probe into Kurdistan's lucrative oil revenues and pledged to expose "corrupt" officials in the region who might have illegally monopolised the market.
Iraq court orders arrest of Kurd independence vote organisers The decision ratchets up pressure on Iraqi Kurdistan just over two weeks after voters in the autonomous region overwhelmingly backed independence in the non-binding ballot slammed as illegal by Baghdad. Acting on a request from the National Security Council headed by Iraq's prime minister, a court in east Baghdad issued warrants against the chairman of the vote's organising commission Hendren Saleh and two other members, Supreme Judicial Council spokesman Abdel Sattar Bayraqdar told AFP. It ruled that the three "organised the referendum in contravention of a ruling by the Iraqi supreme court," which had found the vote unconstitutional and ordered it called off. The supreme court ruling came one week before the September 25 referendum, but the organisers went ahead with it regardless. In retaliation the central authorities have already severed ties between the region and the outside world by cutting international air links, while neighbouring Turkey and Iran have threatened to close their borders to oil exports. - 'Political decision' - The court's arrest order is likely to prove toothless as Baghdad's security forces do not operate inside Kurdistan, but it could stop the officials leaving the region. Vote commission chief Saleh shrugged off the ruling as of "no importance", insisting that it was a purely "political decision". Even if it does prove symbolic, the move still represents the latest step in a broader onslaught designed to tighten the legal and financial screws on Arbil. The National Security Council on Monday said "a list of names" of Kurdish officials who helped organised the referendum had been compiled and "judicial measures have been taken against them". Iraq has also launched a probe into Kurdistan's lucrative oil revenues and pledged to expose "corrupt" officials in the region who might have illegally monopolised the market. Baghdad -- which has already demanded to take over Kurdistan's airports and borders -- is looking to reclaim control over mobile phone companies in the region, including two of the largest providers in Iraq. The authorities also announced Tuesday that they are looking to reopen a key oil pipeline to Turkey that would rival a competing Kurdish export route. The Iraqi pipeline was cut off after the Islamic State group seized swathes of the country in 2014, halting a flow of oil to Turkey of up to 400,000 barrels a day. The angry dispute over the referendum -- also rejected by the United States -- is the latest twist in the decades-long movement by Iraq's Kurds to break away from Baghdad. Iraq is pushing Turkey and Iran -- which both opposed the ballot over fears of fuelling demands from their own sizeable Kurdish communities -- to close their border posts with Kurdistan and stop all trade with the region. Washington warned the referendum could "increase instability" in the region and have an impact on the battle against IS, in which Kurdish fighters have been a key force.
Trump sends lieutenants to Pakistan with tough messageWashington (AFP) Oct 7, 2017 President Donald Trump will dispatch his top diplomatic and military advisors to Pakistan in the coming weeks, turning up the heat on a nuclear-armed ally accused of harboring terror groups. Weeks after Trump angrily accused Islamabad of providing safe haven to "agents of chaos," Secretary of State Rex Tillerson plans to depart for Pakistan late this month. He will be followed by Secreta ... read more Related Links News From Across The Stans
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