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Talabani’s son for U.S. military base in Kurdistan - Aswat Aliraq

Arbil, June 22, (VOI) – Iraqi President Jalal Talabani’s son said having U.S. forces in Iraq would “spare the Kurdish people any forms of injustice,” stressing that setting up a U.S. base in Iraq’s Kurdistan region “is in favor of both the United States Kurdistan.”

“We have to explain to our American friends that their interests with the Kurds are not just political. They are also economic and military,” Qabbad Talabani, the representative of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region’s government in the United States, said in a press conference in Arbil, capital of Kurdistan, on Friday.

Several Kurdish officials had expressed readiness to accept a U.S. military base in the autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region, in the northern part of the country, which is nearly Independent from the Iraqi state since the end of the 2^nd Gulf War in 1991.

On the reasons for the Kurds’ fears about their future in Iraq despite the presence of a constitution and a government where the Kurds are active, Talabani said “history has left its imprint in our memories. We have to have fears about the emergence of a dictator, whether in Iraq or in a neighboring country.”

“Who would guarantee that the future government in Iraq would be democratic. Our fears would not be allayed in just one or two years. We have to make sure that our people would not come under any other forms of injustice,” said Talabani Jr.
Talabani stressed “Iraq’s need to build a system of government on an institutional basis so as to make sure the Iraqi people’s rights are preserved and democracy is maintained in this country.”

The Iraqi leader’s son revealed that the Kurds were trying to form a “lobby” to practice pressures on the U.S. policies in favor of the Kurdish issue.

“Our relations with the United States must be strengthened, whether through the Kurdish community or through setting up a lobby to press U.S. policies to support the Kurdish issues,” he said.

Qabbad Talabani expressed concern about “the U.S. forces’ armament of Iraqi clans, particularly the Sunni clans.”

“Many in Kurdistan are concerned about providing Iraqi clans with arms. The Iraqi problem is political, not military. There is also a trust problem that can never be solved through armament,” he said.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had last week said he was concerned about U.S. forces’ armament of Iraqi clans in order to confront the al-Qaeda Organization in a number of cities where the network is active, namely in the provinces of al-Anbar and Diala.

Maliki said the Iraqi government is worried that these arms could end up “in terrorist groups’ hands.”

Talabani, asked on the Turkish threats to attack Iraq’s Kurdistan Region to track down members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), outlawed in Turkey, said “we are confident that Turkey would not attack Kurdistan because Turkey is quite aware of its economic interests in the region.”

“Hundreds of Turkish companies have presence in the Iraqi Kurdistan region and thousands of workers, who participate in reconstruction projects there, transfer huge sums of money to Turkey,” he explained.

Aswat Aliraq