Kurd Group Retracts Peace Pledges

A Kurdish group backed by Saddam Hussein retreated Friday from some of the pledges it made in a comprehensive peace agreement signed a day earlier.

The Kurdistan Democratic Party issued a statement backing off from promises to re-establish a regional government in northern Iraq. The party said it had to discuss the matter first.

The agreement between the KDP and its Iranian-backed rival, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, also included promises to maintain a U.S.-mediated cease-fire and exchange captives.

The two factions have been fighting each other sporadically since 1994 in northern Iraq, a semiautonomous area where a U.S.-led air force patrols to protect against attacks by Saddam’s forces. The Kurdish groups halted their latest clashes last week.

The items the KDP balked at Friday also included a stipulation that the parties would not “seek the intervention of any other forces.” The KDP’s collaboration with Saddam in August to take the Kurdish capital Irbil from the PUK led to missile attacks by the United States on Baghdad’s air defense systems.

The agreement was seen as a critical factor in resuming limited Iraqi oil sales. A long-delayed deal between the United Nations and Iraq permits Iraq to sell a limited amount of oil to buy food and medicine.