Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

78
Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro de la Prensa-Basin Ozeti
MTOWAT10N.U
MONDAY, MARCH 25, 2013
Kerry warns
Iraq on being
conduit for
arms to Syria
BAGHDAD
Iran's use of airspace
an increasingly thorny
issue with U.S. officials
BY MICHAEL R. GORDON,
TIM ARANGO AND ANNE BARNARD
Secretary of State John Kerry told
Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki
during a visit to Baghdad on Sunday
that Iraq must take steps to stop the
shipment of Iranian weapons to Syria if
it wanted to participate in broader dis¬
cussions about that country's future.
Mr. Kerry's visit to Iraq was the first
by an American secretary of state since
Hillary Rodham Clinton went in 2009,
and it came amid growing concern over
Iraq's role in the Syrian conflict.
Flights of Iranian weapons to Syria
through Iraqi airspace, which a senior
State Department official said were oc¬
curring on nearly a daily basis, have
been crucial for the government of Pres¬
ident Bashar al-Assad of Syria, which
faces increasing pressure from rebel
fighters. Mr. Kerry said he had had a
spirited discussion with Mr. Maliki about
the issue, but there was no tangible sign
that the Iraqis would alter their position.
The Kerry trip came amid continuing
turmoil in the main Syrian exile opposi¬
tion group. Moaz al-Khatib, who as pres¬
ident of the Syrian Opposition Coalition
had pushed for political talks between
the Syrian government and its armed op¬
ponents, resigned on Sunday, days after
the coalition elected an interim prime
minister who rejects such dialogue.
Mr. Khatib blamed the Syrian govern¬
ment for ignoring his overtures and bit¬
terly criticized unnamed nations for
placing too many conditions on aid to
Syria and manipulating the crisis for
their own interests.
"They support whomever is ready to
obey, and the one who refuses has to face
starvation and siege," Mr. Khatib said in
an online statement. "We will not beg to
satisfy anyone, and if there is a decision
to execute us as Syrians, so let it be."
It was not clear which of the opposi¬
tion's many frustrations Mr. Khatib, of¬
ten cryptic in public statements, was re¬
ferring to the reluctance of Western
countries to send arms to rebels for fear
they will fall into the hands of extremist
fighters, meddling by the uprising's for¬
eign supporters in the choice of a prime
minister, or both.
Mr. Kerry, speaking at a news confer¬
ence at the U.S. Embassy after meeting
with Mr. Maliki, said he stressed that
supporting Mr. Assad by allowing the
Iranian flights is "problematic" and did
not represent the "common goals" of
the United States and Iraq.
The air corridor over Iraq has
emerged as a main route of military aid
to Mr. Assad's government The ship¬
ments include rockets, antitank missiles,
rocket-propelled grenades and mortars,
and Iranian personnel, according to U.S.
intelligence officials. There are supply
lines on the ground as well.
. Iran has as an enormous stake in Syr¬
ia, which is its staunchest Arab ally and
has provided a channel for Iran's sup¬
port to the Islamist movement Hezbol¬
lah in Lebanon.
Syria is also important to the Shiite-
dominated Iraqi government, led by Mr.
: Maliki. Fearing that Mr. Assad's over¬
throw would lead to Sunni control and
embolden the Iraqi Sunnis who oppose
him, Mr. Maliki has been seen as tolerat¬
ing the Iranian flights.
U.S. officials have repeatedly insisted
that the Iraqis demand that the Iranian
flights must land so that they can be in¬
spected. But the Iraqis have carried out
only two inspections since July, the
State Department official said. One was
of an Iranian flight that was on its way
back to Tehran after delivering its cargo
in Syria Iran has said the flights are
merely carrying humanitarian aid.
Iraq has yet to develop an air force,
and since the United States military left
the country in 2011, American war-
planes no longer patrol Iraq's skies.
The Iranian flights pose a major chal¬
lenge for American strategy on Syria.
Mr. Kerry has repeatedly said that
Obama administration officials want to
change Mr. Assad's calculation that he
can prevail militarily and they want to
persuade him to relinquish power and
agree to a political transition. But Robert
Ford, the senior State Department offi¬
cial on Syria policy, told Congress last
week that Iranian and Russian military
assistance has fortified Mr. Assad's be¬
lief that his military can still win.
In the Syria opposition movement,
Mr. Khatib's resignation appeared to be
at least a short-term blow to prospects
for a political solution to the conflict.
And it underscored the challenges that
the opposition coalition still faces in es¬
tablishing legitimacy and effective lead¬
ership, four months after dozens of
countries recognized it as the legitimate
representative of Syrians.
Mr. Khatib, a prominent imam who
had sided early on with the revolution,
had drawn criticism from some in the
coalition for being willing to talk with
some members of Mr. Assad's govern¬
ment. But others saw him as a moderate
who was ideally suited to reach out to
Damascus residents who support the
government or fear the rebels, and he
had begun to build respect among some
fighters inside Syria.
Last week, the coalition, divided and
under pressure to choose a temporary
leader to try to administer rebel-held
The air corridor over Iraq
has emerged as a main route
of military aid to Mr. Assad's
government.
areas, selected a relatively unknown
Syrian-born Texas businessman, Ghas¬
san Hitto, as prime minister. Mr. Hitto
quickly made clear that he sees no room
for dialogue with anyone in the govern¬
ment, after a conflict that has killed
more than 70,000 people.
"The regime missed the most valu¬
able opportunities to implement nation¬
al comprehensive reconciliation," Mr.
Khatib said in his statement.
Mr. Khatib projected an earnest, un¬
polished persona and never fitted the
profile of a politician, sometimes failing
to build support for controversial moves
before announcing them and then post¬
ing mournful statements on Facebook
about how he had been misunderstood.
Some coalition members and anti-gov¬
ernment activists in Syria said they
wished he had stayed in office to push
back against the foreign interference he
spoke of, rather than resigning abruptly
and emotionally.
A coalition member familiar with Mr.
Khatib's thinking, who spoke on condi¬
tion of anonymity to discuss politically
sensitive matters, said Mr. Khatib had
resigned over interference from Saudi
Arabia, a key backer of the Syrian upris¬
ing.
The member said that Saudi Arabia
had threatened to cut off funding and
split the coalition if it did not select its
favored candidate for prime minister,
Assad Mustafa, who had promised to
appoint a Saudi favorite as defense min¬
ister. That, the member said, enraged
members, who then hastily settled on
Mr. Hitto, who was backed by Qatar and
the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood.
Another member, Mustafa Sabagh,
who is close to the Saudi government,
denied the Saudis had interfered and
said he believed Mr. Khatib had resigned
over the many conditions Western coun¬
tries had placed on aid to the uprising.
The turmoil in the opposition came as
the Israeli military said it had hit a Syri¬
an position after two Israeli patrols came
under fire from across the decades-old
Israeli-Syrian cease-fire line in the
Golan Heights, adding to fears that the
Syrian conflict will spill over its borders.
The military did not specify whether the
Syrian position belonged to Syrian gov¬
ernment forces or rebels.