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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (75308)	2/18/2003 6:04:50 PM
From: paul_philp	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Hardball, anyone? Ooops, not nice! I wonder what Turkey thinks of an independent Kurdistan. It actually annoys me that the US might negotiate this away for Turkey's agreement to support the war. I suspect that Kurdistan will retain it's largely independent status in the post-Saddam Iraq though. Paul

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (75308)	2/18/2003 6:24:05 PM
From: mistermj	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Iran fills the vacuum DJ Iranian-Backed Iraqi Opposition Forces Enter N Iraq -FT 02/18/2003 Dow Jones News Services (Copyright © 2003 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.) NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Iranian-backed Iraqi opposition forces have crossed into northern Iraq from Iran with the aim of securing the frontier in the event of war, according to senior Iranian officials, the Financial Times reports on its Web site Tuesday. The forces, numbering up to 5,000 troops with some heavy equipment, are nominally under the command of Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim, a prominent Iraqi Shia Muslim opposition leader who has been based in Iran since 1980, the report said. Iranian officials say the role of the brigade, which has been trained and equipped by Iran's Revolutionary Guards, is purely defensive, according to the article. A U.S. State Department official told the Financial Times that he was aware of reports that part of Ayatollah Hakim's Badr brigade had crossed into northern Iraq, but declined further comment. (END) Dow Jones Newswires 02-18-03 1737ET

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (75308)	2/18/2003 8:08:15 PM
From: NickSE	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 281500

Turkey completely overplayed their hand and are on the verge of losing everything (billions of dollars of new and existing loans and grants and probably a cut of the Kirkuk and Mosul oilfields). They don't realize the northern front isn't as important as the western and southern ones. North is mostly mountainous terrain and it would have taken much longer to advance towards Bagdad then the others. globalsecurity.org Hardball, anyone?