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The United States and Turkey have reached an agreement on averting friction with Kurdish forces in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said Thursday.
According to the agreement, reached by Powell and his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul during an earlier telephone talk, Kurdish forces will pull back from Kirkuk and Turkey will reduce the number of military forces moving into northern Iraq. US forces "will be in control of Kirkuk,"
Meanwhile, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters that American forces will take control of the oil-rich city, which was seized by Kurdish forces Wednesday.
"We've been in contact with officials in Turkey as well as free Iraqis in the North and I think it is fair to say that American forces will be in control of Kirkuk," said Fleischer.
Concerning about a wider Kurdish independence bid after downfall of Iraqi central government, Ankara has warned that any bid by the Kurds to retain permanent control of Kirkuk and Mosul, northern Iraq's other major city, would be unacceptable.
(Xinhua News Agency April 11, 2003)
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