Saudi Arabia offers Kurds 2 billion dollars to give up Kirkuk

dpa German Press Agency Published: Tuesday April 3, 2007

Baghdad- A Shiite newspaper published in Baghdad reported
Tuesday that Kurdistan President Massoud Barzani had turned down a
2-billion-dollar offer from the Saudis in return for giving up
demands to have oil-rich Kirkuk as the capital of Kurdistan.
Al-Bianh al-Jadidah newspaper said that the Saudi offer was made
to Barzani and Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Borham Saleh when they
visited Saudi Arabia last month.

The Saudis asked for a 10-year freeze on the Kurdish demand to
incorporate Kirkuk in the north of Iraq into Kurdistan.

The newspaper said that an Iraqi government source, who did not
want to be named, said both Barzani and Saleh had declined to give in
to Saudi pressure to give up the "Kurds' historical rights to the
city."

In another development, US-led coalition forces killed six
terrorist suspects and captured 13 others Tuesday during operations
targeting the al-Qaeda terrorist network in Iraq and those helping
them, the US military reported.

During an operation south of Fallujah, 70 kilometres west of
Baghdad, coalition forces killed six terrorist suspects and detained
seven others with alleged links to their support network, the
statement added.

A separate raid in Qaim, 500 kilometres west of Baghdad and near
the Syrian border, resulted in the capture of six suspected terror
suspects.

© 2006 - dpa German Press Agency

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