By Xinhua
Baghdad : Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said Sunday his country would not be able to hand over Kurdish rebel leaders to Turkey, while the Turkish artillery continue shelling northern border region, local media reported.
“Handing over the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) leaders to Turkeyis a dream that will not be realized,” Talabani, himself a Kurd, told reporters in a joint news conference with the Kurdish regional leader Massoud al-Barzani after their meeting in Arbil, capital of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region.
The two discussed the tension that has been growing since Wednesday when the Turkish parliament approved a motion allowing the Turkish troops to conduct incursion into northern Iraq to hunt PKK fighters.
“They (the PKK leaders) are in the mountains and the Turkish army with all its mightiness could not eradicate them, so how could we arrest them and hand them over? ” Talabani asked.
He also said that Iraq has signed an agreement with Turkey to fight terrorism, which, however, does not give the right for the Turkish army to enter the Iraqi soil.
For his part, Barazani said, “we are not going to be caught up in the PKK-Turkish war, but if Kurdistan region is targeted, we are going to defend our citizens.”
The two Kurdish leaders stressed on solving all the problems through political and peaceful means and stave off military solutions.
In a new development, the Turkish warplanes struck a bridge in Duhuk province in the afternoon, while the Turkish artillery continue shelling several Kurdish border areas since early in the morning.