Daily Press Briefing
Tom Casey, Deputy Spokesman
Washington, DC
May 29, 2007
Mr. Lambros.
QUESTION: On Turkey. Mr. Casey, according to reports, the Iraqi Kurdistan autonomous government will take charge of the security of both regions this week in a transfer of command from the U.S.-led coalition force, giving full authority to 170,000 peshmergas, or Kurdish rebels, affiliated with the regional government. The decision has been taken between regional President Massoud Barzani; Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki; and high senior U.S. military leader, who confirmed the handover. Any comment?
MR. CASEY: Who confirmed the handover of what to whom?
QUESTION: Of --
MR. CASEY: Could you try -- try me again, Mr. Lambros. I'm sorry, I didn't hear you.
QUESTION: According to --
MR. CASEY: You're talking about -- are you talking about the handover of various provinces in Iraq to Iraqi forces?
QUESTION: I'm talking about the handover of security of three regional areas --
MR. CASEY: Mm-hmm.
QUESTION: -- from the U.S. coalition force to Massoud Barzani. I'm talking about giving authority to 170,000 peshmergas, or Kurdish rebels.
MR. CASEY: Well --
QUESTION: It was a decision between a known referee -- the U.S. officials --
MR. CASEY: Mr. Lambros --
QUESTION: -- Prime Minister, --
MR. CASEY: Yeah, let's --
QUESTION: -- and Massoud Barzani.
MR. CASEY: Let's deal with some facts here. First of all, there are Iraqi Government army, military and security forces that are -- we are working with every day. And we are trying to allow them to get to the point where they can take the lead and ultimately by themselves be responsible for security throughout all of Iraq. However, I would point out that the process of the handover of security responsibilities --
QUESTION: Yes.
MR. CASEY: -- in a variety of provinces is something that's been going on for some time. And those arrangements have been made with -- openly with coalition forces and the Iraqi Government. I'd refer you to Prime Minister Maliki and his government for details on any specific transfers. But this is nothing new, and this is something that is an encouraging sign of the ability of Iraq's security forces to be able to manage security in at least those particular areas.
QUESTION: But the U.S. Government -- why the U.S. Government had decided prior to the general elections in Turkey, July 22nd, to approve this handover? Why so much urgency?
MR. CASEY: Mr. Lambros, I believe this is something that's been -- being worked on for about four years now. Its part of what we said at the very start of military -- or post-combat operations in Iraq. We were going to help Iraq develop its security forces and work to have them be able to take full responsibility for security in the country. The timing of this is totally unconnected to any events in Turkey or any other country that's connected to the longstanding plans of coalition forces and the Iraqi Government. And for any specifics on what might or might not be occurring today or next day on that, I'd refer you to MNFI and to the Iraqi Government.
QUESTION: Okay. And the last one, U.S. warplanes violated the Turkish airspace, about southeast of Turkey flying above Turkish folks in that coastal area making Ankara extremely upset and (inaudible) to the U.S. Government. Any comment on that?
MR. CASEY: Well, we talked a little bit about this this morning. And I think the Embassy has spoken to this as well. There was an unintended violation of Turkish airspace by--
QUESTION: Unintended.
MR. CASEY: Unintended by U.S. aircraft. This is something that's been investigated. It's something that as soon as we found out about it, we did discuss with both the Turkish Defense Ministry and Foreign Ministry. Certainly we are very respectful of Turkish sovereignty and of Turkish airspace. And through our investigation, we're going to make sure that we take whatever steps are necessary to ensure that this kind of thing doesn't happen again.
QUESTION: Thank you.
MR. CASEY: Let's go back here.
QUESTION: Can you tell us what the President -- his thoughts were and secondly to the other question of North Iraq pulling out of the U.S. troops? And if now Turkey decides to send in some troops in Northern Iraq, to fight against PKK, what would be the position of the U.S. army there? Would they intervene? Do they still have the possibility to intervene or not?
MR. CASEY: First of all, in terms of the flights, these were flights by U.S. aircraft based in Iraq. My understanding there is a brief and inadvertent violation of Turkish airspace. I honestly don't know what missions they were performing. You could, I'm sure, check with the Pentagon or with the commanders on the ground there in terms of what specific operational mission they were performing. Again, I want to emphasize that the turnover of security responsibilities in any of Iraq's provinces between U.S. forces and Iraqi forces does not generally mean that coalition forces somehow disappear from the area. It means that the Iraqi forces are taking the lead that they are primarily responsible, but coalition forces are still there to support them.
In terms of the questions related to hypothetical military action on the part of the Turkish Government into Northern Iraq, again, we've spoken to that issue on a number of occasions previously and our position remains the same. We want to work with the Government of Turkey and the Government of Iraq to be able to deal with the real threat and challenges posed by the PKK. The best way to do that and deal with that is by working together diplomatically and working together to deal with those problems.
Yeah. Well, let's go -- .
(The briefing was concluded at 1:20 p.m.)
DPB # 95
Released on May 29, 2007
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