Turkey Concerned Over Israeli-Kurdish Cooperation

The diplomat told the Turkish ITV news network he reassured the Turkish foreign ministry that Israel had decided long ago not to meddle in the Iraqi affairs.

Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani further dismissed the report as "total fabrication" at a press conference Monday, June 21, during his visit to Ankara .

He denied cooperation between the Israeli Mossad and the Kurdish peshmerga forces.

Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul had stressed that Ankara will continue to closely monitor the situation in northern Iraq .

He said Ankara is keen on the territorial integrity of neighboring Iraq and cannot tolerate any "political activities in [northern] Iraq that will influence the future of Iraq ."

The New Yorker reported Monday that Israeli intelligence and military operatives are now quietly at work in northern Iraq, providing training for Kurdish commando units and running covert operations inside Kurdish areas of Iran and Syria.

The report added that Mossad operatives work undercover in norther Iraq as businessmen and in some cases do not carry Israeli passports.

The magazine quoted a senior Turkish official as saying that Ankara will stand up firmly to the division of Iraq .

"Before the war, Israel was active in Kurdistan , and now it is active again. This is very dangerous for us, and for them, too. We do not want to see Iraq divided, and we will not ignore it."

Turkey has been worried since the start of the US-led invasion of Iraq in March last year that the Kurds, encouraged by the US occupation, would establish an independent state in northern Iraq .

This, Ankara fears, might encourage similar separatist aspirations from its own Kurdish community.

‘Natural’

A retired Turkish general told Turkey ’s NTV network Tuesday that the Israeli presence in northern Iraq was "natural".

Armacan Kul Oglu said it serves Israel ’s long-standing policy to "tear apart the Arab world by playing the Kurdish card against Syria and Iran ".

The New Yorker article by Seymour Hersh — a veteran journalist who contributed to exposing the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by US soldiers — quoted current and former Israeli intelligence officials that it is not strange that Israel is quite active in the region.

"Look, Israel has always supported the Kurds in a Machiavellian way—as balance against Saddam. It’s Realpolitik," an intelligence officer told the American magazine.

"By aligning with the Kurds, Israel gains eyes and ears in Iran , Iraq , and Syria ," he added.

"What Israel was doing with the Kurds was not so unacceptable in the Bush Administration."

Turkey ’s Milleyet newspaper said the report put such a strain on the already tense relations between Turkey and Israel .

The Israeli-Turkish relations hit an all-time low last month in the wake of the sweeping Israeli raid into the southern Palestinian city of Rafah, which killed at least 62 Palestinians, flattened 155 homes and made some 2000 residents homeless.

The tension capped by Turkey ’s recalling its ambassador from Israel in protest at the offensive.

The move – mild form of diplomatic rebuke, came days after Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan described Israel ‘s military aggressions against Palestinians as "state terror."