Senior Iraqi Kurd warns against attack

Iraq’s senior Kurdish statesman called for direct talks with Turkey today and warned that any aggression would be resisted.

Speaking as tensions mounted over a threatened Turkish incursion against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq, Massoud Barzani said the dispute would not be resolved by violence.

The president of the Kurdish region in northern Iraq also insisted Iraqi Kurds were not responsible for the fighting between Turkey and rebels from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, known by its Kurdish acronym PKK.

His comments came two days after the Turkish parliament voted to authorise a cross-border incursion to root out the rebels from their bases in the mountains on the frontier.

There has been no sign of imminent military strikes and the US and Iraqi governments have urged restraint.

Barzani said: “The experiences of the past years have shown that this issue cannot be solved through the course of war.

“But at the same time we declare to all: if the region or the Kurdistan experiment faces any aggression under any pretext whatsoever, than we are fully prepared to defend our democratic experience and the dignity of our people and the sanctity of our homeland.”