Iraqi parliament speaker says his country can't control Kurdish rebels

[babylonsister]

Iraqi parliament speaker says his country can't control Kurdish rebels
The Associated Press
Published: October 24, 2007

DAMASCUS, Syria: Iraq's parliament speaker on Wednesday said his country cannot control the activities of Kurdish rebels but pledged to end any logistic support to the guerrilla group and seek a peaceful solution for the current standoff with Turkey.

"When the Iraqi government becomes capable of controlling Baghdad's security, then the others can ask us to control the borders," Iraqi Parliament Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani told reporters in Damascus after talks with his Syrian counterpart, Mahmoud al-Abrash.

However, he said, "this doesn't absolve us from ... a national duty not to serve as a headquarters or to support, in any form, any organization that might harm any neighboring country."

The Iraqi parliament has called for a cessation of any logistic support to the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, and "to cooperate with all sides to find a peaceful solution for this crisis," al-Mashhadani said.

His remarks came as Turkish troops have shelled suspected Kurdish rebel positions across the border in Iraq, and the Turkish government was weighing a possible military offensive into northern Iraq to hunt down the PKK rebels after a rebel ambush Sunday killed 12 soldiers near the border.

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http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/10/24/africa/ME-GEN-Syria-Iraq-Kurds.php