Unsavoury alliance

How strong is the alliance between Israel and the Kurds? Omayma Abdel-Latif seeks some answers

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Citizens of Baghdad gather around the mangled wreckage of a car which exploded in a bomb attack timed on 22 June to coincide with a passing convoy of US troops and Iraqi police. Two bystanders were killed, including a six year-old boy

Kurdish politicians reacted with anger to an article published in The New Yorker this week that revealed an active Israeli role in autonomous areas of Kurdistan in northern Iraq. They criticised the article as "part of a smearing campaign against the Kurdish people".

The article entitled "Plan B", written by prominent American journalist Seymour Hersh, spoke of a strong alliance that built between Iraqi Kurds and Israel in the months that followed the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime.

Speaking to Al-Ahram Weekly on Wednesday, Fouad Masoum, a key aide to Jalal Talabani, head of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) -- one of the two main Kurdish parties -- dismissed Hersh's article as "baseless". "There are no Israeli activities of any nature in Kurdistan," said Masoum. Masoum said that such reports were peddled by "those who want to destabilise Iraq and paint a picture of a new order in Iraq which is friendly to the Israelis as opposed to the old regime".

Another prominent Kurdish politician criticised the article as part of "a vile campaign against the Kurds". Hersh's article, according to Mahmoud Osman of the Kurdish Islamic Party, bases its conclusions of an alliance between the Kurds and Israel on intelligence information that cannot be verified. Osman, who is a former member of the now disbanded Interim Governing Council (IGC), accused parties he declined to name of aiming to drive a wedge between the Kurdish and Arab populations in Iraq. "It is meant to further complicate the Kurdish situation in Iraq and to poison the relationship between Iraq's Kurds and Arabs," he said.

While Kurdish politicians denied an official presence of Israel in the region, none could confirm or deny that Israeli intelligence activities existed in the area. "After the war, all the Iraqi borders have been flung open so it is not surprising that all the mukhabarat (intelligence) apparatuses of the region wanted to have a foothold in Iraq, including the Israelis," said Hamid Al- Kafae, former spokesperson of the IGC.

Hersh, quoting extensively from "intelligence sources" in Turkey, the US, Europe and Israel, painted a picture of a worried Israel whose concerns about the situation in Iraq were snubbed by the US administration. It turned, therefore, to the Kurds in order to "minimise the damage which the war in Iraq was causing to its strategic position". Israel, according to Hersh, decided to expand its long- standing relationship with Iraq's Kurds and establish what Hersh described as a "significant presence on the ground" in the semi- autonomous region of Kurdistan. "Israeli intelligence and military operatives are now quietly at work in Kurdistan, providing training for Kurdish commando units and running covert operations inside Kurdish areas of Iran and Syria," the article alleged.

When asked for comment on this particular point, both Osman and Masoum denied that the Kurdish peshmerga were in need of Israeli training. "They have been training for 40 years," explained Osman, "and don't need the Israelis to train them." Nonetheless, such allegations will doubtless be alarming for Iraqis. The peshmerga were exempted from an order by interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi to disarm. Iraqi observers reason that the fact that the peshmerga will remain the only armed group in Iraq doubtless fuels suspicions among the rest of the Iraqi population. Meanwhile, the article, Osman continued, spoke about establishing bases in Kurdish autonomous areas to monitor Iranian nuclear activities, "but how could this happen when the Iranian facilities are in Tehran, some 1500 kilometres away from the Kurdish area?"

Accurate or not, Hersh's article brought to the fore questions about the present or possible future role of Israel in the post-Saddam Iraq. Kurds had always remained circumspect in their relationship with Israel in the past. But after the fall of the Saddam Hussein regime there was more than one report, if unconfirmed, about the revival of old ties. Hersh's article reinforces the suspicion many have had of an intimate Kurdish-Israeli connection. Reports coming from Iraq during the past few months spoke of a heavy Israeli presence in the country but there was no confirmed information about how far Israel was involved on the Iraqi scene. Iraqis believe that most of the Israelis who have entered the country did so under US cover.

Many Arab newspapers recently published reports that spoke of accelerated efforts by "Jewish organisations" in buying land and real estate in Iraq. Some reports went as far as to suggest that these organisations made claims to certain archaeological sites that are dear to the Jewish religion and its heritage in Iraq. Such claims, however, were dismissed by Iraqi officials. Adnan Al-Asady, deputy head of Al- Daawa Party told the Weekly that many such reports of an Israeli presence in Iraq were "exaggerated". "When reports came out that Jewish organisations buy land and real estate in Iraq, Iraqi political and religious forces moved quickly to investigate those claims but we found out that they were baseless," Al-Asady said. "If the Americans or people from any other nationality cannot move freely in Iraq so how can an Israeli?" Al-Asady asked.

While Al-Asady was reluctant to comment on Hersh's New Yorker article, he nonetheless said that Iraqis have been hearing about an intimate Israeli-Kurdish connection for almost 10 years now. "This talk about a Kurdish state which will be separated from Iraqi territory has been around for quite some time. There is also a de facto situation as the area of Iraqi Kurdistan has been independent from the central government for almost 13 years," Al-Asady said.

Kurds, for their part, believe they know who is behind the leaks that form the basis of such reports. Osman points his finger at Turkish intelligence agencies that want to tarnish the image of the Kurdish people by portraying them as allies of Israel. "I think it is Turkey which maintains the strategic alliance with Israel, despite the Turkish prime minister's recent angry statements against Israel, I still believe that their alliance will survive the current tension because this is what the Turkish army wants," Osman said.

On Tuesday, Turkey's Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul warned the Kurds against "any attempt to control Kirkuk". Turkey, according to sources close to the government, is concerned about the news of the Israeli role in northern Iraq. Turkish press sources confirmed to the Weekly that the Turkish government had knowledge of an active Israeli role in the region for quite some time now. "The Turkish government had alarming information about the Israeli activities in northern Iraq," said Abdul-Hamid Bilici foreign editor for Zaman newspaper, an Islamist-oriented publication close to government circles.

Bilici further explained that part of the reason why the Israeli-Turkish relations were strained recently is due to Israeli involvement in northern Iraq. He also pointed out that the perception within government is that the American occupation of Iraq has helped the Israelis gain easy access to the region. Asked if Gul's warning to the Kurds could signal Turkey's readiness to intervene militarily in Iraq, Bilici refused to rule out the possibility. "There is a possibility that Turkey would intervene, because one of the key Turkish policy principles is that Iraqi oil should not be controlled by one ethnic group but that all Iraqis should share it. Any attempt to change the situation in Kirkuk will be met by a strong Turkish reaction," explained Bilici.

Hersh's article came shortly after Arab press published reports of the continuous attempts by Kurds to evacuate Arab residents in Kirkuk. The London-based Al-Hayat newspaper reported last week about incidents of Arab residents of Kirkuk being driven out of their homes. Kurds say they were reclaiming property they were forced to leave two decades ago by Saddam Hussein's regime. Al-Kafae said that reports of mass deportations were exaggerated. He explained that such cases were isolated incidents. The situation on the ground, however, was not getting any better.

This prompted the new Iraqi president to visit the city in order to clam fears after Turkey warned on Tuesday that it retains the right to protect Turkomans in Iraq and that it cannot remain silent in the face of Kurdish attempts to control Kirkuk. Al-Yawar expressed his firm opposition to any change of the ethnic make-up of the city. "Kirkuk is a mini-Iraq," said Al- Yawar, "and the success of the new government will depend on restoring stability to Kirkuk and addressing the ethnic problem."