ANKARA, Turkey, Nov. 7 (UPI) -- A senior Kurdish official denied Friday the existence of Israeli economic and intelligence activities in northern Iraq.
Kosert Rasul, a politburo member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, led by Jalal Talabani, said Turkish press reports alleging Israeli businessmen were buying land in oil-rich regions in northern Iraq were untrue.
"These reports are fabricated and silly. There is no economic or intelligence activities by Israel in northern Iraq," Rasul told UPI in a telephone interview.
Representatives of the Turkmen community in northern Iraq alleged Israeli businessmen have financed the establishment of a Kurdish bank and are buying land at cheap prices from poor Kurdish families.
They also claimed that Israeli intelligence was active opened secret offices in northern Iraq near the border with Iran and Syria.
"Such matters as founding banks and opening offices cannot be hidden. Fabricating this information is a suspicious act aimed at undermining stability in Iraq's Kurdistan,"Rasul charged.
