WASHINGTON - One of Iraq`s most influential Shiite clerics qualified PKK as a terrorist organization, saying his country would not do anything to hurt Turkey.
"We have very good relations with Turkey and Iraq would not intend to hurt our neighbors --especially Turkey," said Abdel-Aziz Al-Hakim, Shiite leader of the Supreme Council of Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) and head of the United Iraqi Alliance.
"PKK is a terrorist organization and Iraqi constitution does not tolerate any terrorist organization on its territory," Al-Hakim told Monday a meeting at the United States Institute for Peace (USIP), an organization established and funded by the U.S. Congress.
Al-Hakim voiced support for a planned referendum, a constitutional requirement, that would decide about the future status of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.
"If we are to implement the Iraqi Constitution then we have to implement this provision, too," Al-Hakim said without commenting on calls to postpone the referendum, which is due for December 31, 2007.
Al-Hakim`s United Iraqi Alliance collected the majority of the votes in elections held in Iraq on January and December 2005.