Talabani Is Caught in Covert Deal with Tehran

Round about the time you receive this issue, Iraqi president Jalal Talabani will be arriving in Washington. He expects to be received by President George W. Bush and vice president Dick Cheney for a serious palaver on the new Iraqi charter, the October 15 referendum, the Saddam Hussein trial four days later, the general elections due in December and the war on terror.

But, according to DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s intelligence sources, Talabani is in for nasty surprise. He will in fact be hauled over the coals because the Americans have caught on to the deal he has forged behind their backs with Iran. They will show him intelligence data proving his double dealing, with the names of the couriers who shuttled between Baghdad, Suleimaniya and Tehran on his behalf. The final pact has six points, revealed her by our exclusive sources:

1. As president of Iraq and ruler of eastern Kurdistan which commands the Iraq-Iranian border, Talabani undertakes not to interfere with Iran’s military and intelligence infrastructure in Iraq. Kurdish intelligence and security services will not obstruct the passage of Iranian agents in or out of Iraq.

2. Talabani pledges that neither he or any part of his following will form political alliances with the former Iraqi prime minister Iyad Allawi, Sunni moderates or liberal secular Shiites supported by Washington.

3. Talabani will help reduce Iraqi involvement in the Arab intifada in Iranian Khuzestan and the Kurdish uprising against Tehran, both of which are supported from Washington and London.

4. Tehran will back Kurdish independence aspirations for their autonomous region in Iraq.

5. Iran will sponsor Talabani and his eastern Kurdistan fief on the understanding that the other half of Kurdistan ruled by Masoud Barzani is backed by Turkey. Tehran will seek to coordinate its steps with Ankara.

6. Iran will not object to Iraq’s Kurds extending their territory southward up to Hankin in central Iraq near the Iranian border.

US leaders will not ask the Iraqi president to explain his actions; they will order him very simply to dump his accord with Iran.