[R-G] Israelis 'using Kurds to build power base'

[Tim Murphy]

Monday June 21, 2004
The Guardian (UK)

Israelis 'using Kurds to build power base'

by

Gary Younge in New York


Israeli military and intelligence operatives are active in Kurdish areas of
Iran, Syria and Iraq, providing training for commando units and running
covert operations that could further destabilise the entire region,
according to a report in the New Yorker magazine.
The article was written by Seymour Hersh, the Pulitzer Prize-winning
reporter who exposed the abuse scandal in Abu Ghraib. It is sourced
primarily to unnamed former and current intelligence officials in Israel,
the United States and Turkey.

Israel's aims, according to Hersh, are to build up the Kurdish military
strength in order to offset the strength of the Shia militias and to create
a base in Iran from which they can spy on Iran's suspected nuclear-making
facilities.

"Israel has always supported the Kurds in a Machiavellian way - a balance
against Saddam," one former Israeli intelligence officer told the New
Yorker. "It's Realpolitik. By aligning with the Kurds Israel gains eyes and
ears in Iran, Iraq and Syria. The critical question is 'What will the
behaviour of Iran be if there is an independent Kurdistan with close ties to
Israel? Iran does not want an Israeli land-based aircraft carrier on its
border."

By supporting Kurdish separatists, Israel also risks alienating its Turkish
ally and undermining attempts to create a stable Iraq. "If you end up with a
divided Iraq it will bring more blood, tears and pain to the Middle East and
you will be blamed," a senior Turkish official told Mr Hersh.

Intel Brief, an intelligence newsletter produced by former CIA chiefs, noted
early this month that the Israeli actions are placing increasing stress on
their relationship with Turkey, which was already strained over the war.
"The Turks are increasingly concerned by the expanding Israeli presence in
Kurdistan and alleged encouragement of Kurdish ambitions to create an
independent state."

According to Mr Hersh, Israel decided to step up its role in Kurdistan last
summer after it was clear that the United States incursion into Iraq was
failing, principally because it feared the chaos would strengthen Iran. The
Israelis are particularly concerned that Iran may be developing a nuclear
capability.

Iran said on Saturday it would reconsider its suspension of some uranium
enrichment activities after the International Atomic Energy Agency issued a
resolution deploring Iran's limited cooperation with the agency.

In the autumn the former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak told the US vice
president, Dick Cheney, that America had lost in Iraq. Israel "had learned
that there's no way to win an occupation," he told Mr Cheney, and the only
issue was "choosing the size of your humiliation".

>From July last year, argues Mr Hersh, the Israeli government started what
one former Israeli intelligence official called "Plan B" in order to protect
itself from the fallout of the chaos prompted by America's failure ahead of
June 30. If the June 30 transfer of sovereignty does not go well, "there is
no fallback, nothing," a former National Security Council member tells
Hersh. "The neocons still think they can pull the rabbit out of the hat in
Iraq," a former intelligence official says. "What's the plan? They say, 'We
don't need it. Democracy is strong enough. We'll work it out.'"

Israel has a longstanding relationship with the Kurds, whom they regard as
one of the few non-Arab allies in the area. The Iraqi Kurds, who played a
key role in providing the United States with intelligence ahead of the war,
have been angered by the United Nations resolution on Iraq earlier this
month. The resolution did not affirm the interim constitution that granted
them minority veto power in a permanent constitution and so could
potentially leave them sidelined.

One Turkish official told Mr Hersh that Kurdish independence would be
calamitous for the region. "The lesson of Yugoslavia is that when you give
one country independence everybody will want it. Kirkuk will be the Sarajevo
of Iraq. If something happens there, it will be impossible to contain the
crisis."

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1243588,00.html

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