Kurd assembly speaker wary of Iraq arms purchases

Mon Sep 8, 2008 4:36pm EDT

By Shamal Aqrawi

ARBIL, Iraq (Reuters) - Foreign governments must put conditions on the sale of weapons to Iraq that forbid their use to oppress minority Kurds or other Iraqis, the parliamentary speaker in Iraq's largely autonomous Kurdistan region said on Monday.

Adnan al-Mufti, speaking to Kurdish lawmakers at a session of the region's parliament, said he was not worried about the current central government of Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

But he said he was concerned by recent tensions between Kurdish Peshmerga security forces and the Iraqi army in the multi-ethnic town of Khanaqin, which lies near the northern Kurdistan region.

Many Iraqi Kurds have bitter memories of military attacks ordered by Saddam Hussein, especially in the 1980s, when chemical weapons were used and Kurdish villages razed. Tens of thousands of people were killed in those assaults.

"We are part of the government and we do not accuse it of any charge of oppression and we hope it succeeds, but what happened recently has raised in us a justified fear," Mufti said, in an apparent reference to the tensions over Khanaqin.

"If the situation plays out in this way and there is a government or head of the government in the future who thinks of a military solution to impose their will and impose a solution and if they have F-16s, they may use them."

The Iraqi government has asked for information about buying 36 F-16 fighter aircraft built by Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the U.S. Defense Department said on Friday.

The government in Baghdad, flush with cash from high oil prices, is also interested in buying other arms from U.S. manufacturers such as armored vehicles and helicopters.

"As the Iraqi government works to be supplied with up-to-date weapons like F-16s and helicopters, it is important to ask the United States and other supplying countries to make these weapons deals conditional on (them) not being used against the Kurdish people and generally against the Iraqi people," Mufti said.

Arab and Kurdish politicians last week resolved a dispute over control of Khanaqin in northeastern Diyala province, ending a tense standoff that had threatened to trigger violence.

Thousands of Kurds staged protests as the Iraqi army approached Khanaqin last month to try to replace the Peshmerga.

The Iraqi army had wanted to enter Khanaqin to stamp government authority on the area. But Peshmerga forces patrolling the town, which is home to Arabs and Kurds, had refused to withdraw.

Under the deal to defuse the tensions, the Iraqi army and Kurdish forces were to withdraw from the town.

Abdul-Karim al-Samarrai, deputy head of the defense and security committee in the national parliament, said conditions on the use of weapons could not be attached to a contract.

"It is not possible to put these conditions in an (arms) contract," Samarrai told Reuters, adding a political solution could be found to assuage such fears.

(Additional reporting by Wisam Mohammed in Baghdad; Writing by Tim Cocks; Editing by Dean Yates and Caroline Drees)