Kurdish Leader Rejects Iraq Report

The Iraq Study Group

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani, a longtime Washington ally, has angrily rejected the Iraq Study Group's recommendations, warning that any delay in deciding the fate of an oil-rich region claimed by the Kurds would have "grave consequences."

Barzani, president of the 15-year-old autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq, also faulted the U.S. bipartisan commission for not visiting his region, saying that was a "major shortcoming that adversely influenced the credibility of the assessment."

"We are in no way abiding by this report," Barzani said in an e-mailed statement.

He charged that the report released Wednesday, which was prepared by a commission led by former Republican secretary of state, James A. Baker III, and former Democratic congressman, Lee Hamilton, sought to give too much authority to the central government and Iraq's neighbors by giving them a say in the country's affairs.

Barzani also criticized the report's calls for a far-reaching amnesty to opposition groups and the reinstatement of Saddam Hussein loyalists in their old government jobs as part of national reconciliation efforts. Such calls, he said, rewarded "those who are against the political process and have conducted acts of violence."

Iraq's Kurds and Shiites combine for about 80 percent of Iraq's 26 million population.

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