A top Iraqi Kurdish leader has said the US military could have bases in northern Iraq if Washington and Baghdad fail to sign the controversial security deal, a local newspaper reported on Sunday.
Massud Barzani, the president of northern Iraq's regional Kurdish administration, said that his government would 'welcome' such a move, the Khabat, the newspaper run by Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party, quoted him as saying.
Ah, but you knew it wasn't that simple, right?
Central government to "Kurdistan" - "not so fast, my friend!:
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani has said that American troops can set up bases in northern Iraq's Kurdish region only if the Shiite-led government in Baghdad gives its approval.
'It is not possible for US troops to stay in Kurdistan without the approval of the central government,' Talabani said in an interview with state television Al-Iraqiya late on Sunday.
'Kurdistan is part of Iraq, and all of the country's constitutional laws apply to it.'
I suppose it would be a great irony for the US to conclude a security pact with a government they have explicitly stated would not become an independent state.
By: Brant
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