Iraq Kurds Demand Creation of Federal, Secular System
March 4, 2005

By Caroline Alexander:

Iraq's Kurdish Alliance, which will hold the balance of power in the country's 275-seat National Assembly, will back whichever party agrees to demands including the creation of a federal, secular state, Kurdish leaders said.

``The Kurdish leadership will ally itself with any political entity that won seats, on the condition that it recognizes and supports the rights of the Kurdish people and their goals,'' Jalal Talabani, leader of one of the main parties in the alliance, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, said yesterday, according to a statement posted on the PUK Web site.

First place in the Jan. 30 election of assembly members went to the United Iraqi Alliance, backed by Muslim Shiite clerics. Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's Iraqi List was third. Both are courting the second-place Kurdish Alliance in an attempt to gain the two-thirds majority needed to elect a president and two vice-presidents, who will in turn appoint a prime minister.

Allawi is trying to widen the Iraqi List into a new coalition that would include the Kurds. Kurds represent 15 to 20 percent of Iraq's population and have been autonomous in northern areas bordering Turkey and Iran, which also have Kurdish populations, since the first U.S.-led war against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in 1991.

The Kurdish Alliance holds 77 seats in the assembly, which has yet to meet. The United Iraqi Alliance took 140 assembly seats and the Iraqi List gained 40 seats.

Kurdish Priorities

Talabani, who is also a candidate for the presidency, said other priorities include the extension of the autonomous Kurdish region to cover all areas once inhabited by Kurds, including the oil-rich city of Kirkuk. The region of three provinces, known as Kurdistan, also must be permitted to keep its Peshmerga militia, he said, according to the statement, which outlines points made at a news conference in the northern town of Salahadin.

Interim Vice President Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the United Iraqi Alliance candidate for prime minister, is meeting with the Kurds, Agence France-Presse reported, citing Hussein Shahrastani, a senior alliance member and confidante of the country's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

``There are almost daily meetings and they are going to be intensified,'' AFP quoted Shahrastani
as saying.

New Government

Yesterday's Kurdish news conference was held after Talabani met with Masoud Barzani, leader of the Kurdish Democratic Party, the other main party of the Kurdish Alliance, to discuss their demands and priorities, the PUK said in the statement.

When asked if the Kurdish Alliance would back Jaafari or Allawi, Barzani said: ``Our position is clear; we will not work with a personality but with a program, any program that we believe approaches our demands.''

The Kurdish Alliance wants a united national government in which all groups participate, Barzani said. ``We believe that our Arab Sunni brothers must be represented in the government and that they participate in the constitution and in building a new Iraq,'' he said, referring to the minority Sunni Muslim population.

The new government may convene within 14 days, even if a cabinet isn't selected by then, AFP reported, citing United Iraqi Alliance spokesman Hamid al-Bayati.

Allawi announced Feb. 23 that he's forming the National Democratic Coalition to challenge Jaafari, without providing further details. His office said yesterday in an e-mailed statement that the interim leader is talking with all parties, including the Kurdish Alliance and the Iraqi Communist Party, which won two seats in the election.

Allawi's office denied reports he is pulling out of the race in return for a top governmental post.

Ahmed Chalabi, whose Iraqi National Congress is the third- largest party in the United Iraqi Alliance, met with Allawi yesterday, the Turkish Zaman newspaper reported. No further details were available. Chalabi, who like Allawi is a secular Shiite, withdrew from the race for prime minister
last month.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Caroline Alexander in London at calexander1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Peter Torday at ptorday@bloomberg.net.

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