Iraqi Kurd Leaders to Meet in Turkey in Bid to End Fighting

Leaders of warring Kurdish factions will meet in Turkey next week to try to end a bloody dispute that has given Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein a renewed foothold in northern Iraq, the Clinton administration said Thursday.

The meeting in Ankara will be mediated by Assistant Secretary of State Robert H. Pelletreau Jr., the department’s top Mideast expert. It will be the first between officials of the Democratic Party of Kurdistan, or KDP, and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, or PUK, since fighting broke out in late August. British and Turkish diplomats will also participate.

A U.S.-brokered cease-fire that took effect in the region early Thursday seemed to be generally in place despite a five-hour artillery barrage near the town of Degala, news agencies reported from northern Iraq.

“We have hopes that these talks might lead the KDP and PUK to maintain the cease-fire, to decide together on some form of political reconciliation so that the situation in northern Iraq can be more stable and more peaceful,” State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns said.

The latest crisis began when Masoud Barzani’s KDP enlisted the help of Hussein’s army to dislodge Jalal Talabani’s PUK troops from Irbil, the regional capital.

Iraqi forces withdrew shortly after they spearheaded the drive on Irbil. But U.S. officials say Iraqi secret police operatives remained in the region, renewing a government presence in the predominantly Kurdish area for the first time since 1991, when the U.S. government established a protected area for the Kurds after Iraq’s defeat in the Persian Gulf War.

Barzani said he sought Iraqi support after Talabani established a tactical alliance with Iran. But Burns said there has been no “significant military involvement” by either Iran or Iraq since the August offensive on Irbil.

Burns said one of Washington’s key objectives in mediating between the factions is to undercut Hussein’s influence in the region.