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US air strikes possible against Kurdish rebels
But efforts still under way for diplomatic solution
AMID reports of possible US-backed air strikes, Turkey yesterday reassured Iraq that it wants a diplomatic solution to the problem of the Kurdish rebel bases just over its border. But it rejected a conditional ceasefire offer made by the guerrillas.
“Politics, dialogue, diplomacy, culture and economy are the measures to deal with this crisis,” Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan told a joint news conference in Baghdad with his Iraqi counterpart Hoshyar Zebari.
“We do not want to sacrifice our cultural and economic relations with Iraq for the sake of a terror organisation,” he said, referring to the rebel Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) which has bases in northern Iraq.
But Babacan rejected a truce offer made by the PKK on Monday in return for an end to Turkish military action. “The issue of ceasefire is an issue between two countries and two armies and not with a terror organisation. The issue is of terrorism.”
The Iraqi foreign minister pledged that Baghdad would assist Ankara in its struggle against the PKK which has waged a deadly insurgency for Kurdish self-rule in south-eastern Turkey since 1984.
“The Iraqi government will actively help Turkey to overcome this menace,” said Zebari, who is himself a Kurd.
Babacan’s talks in Baghdad came as Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan raised the possibility of joint action with the United States against bases of the PKK, which has stepped up its insurgency in recent weeks.
Turkish MPs have authorised the government to take military action in northern Iraq to flush out the rebels if it deems it necessary.
Turkish anger over PKK rebels in northern Iraq intensified after a weekend attack by the rebels on a military patrol near the border that left 12 soldiers dead.
But the government has so far accepted US calls to hold back from unilateral action. Erdogan, who was in London for talks with his British counterpart Gordon Brown yesterday, said he had discussed with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice the possibility of joint action against the rebels.
“We may conduct a joint operation with the United States against the PKK in northern Iraq,” Erdogan told the mass-selling Turkish daily Hurriyet on his flight into London.
Erdogan said he received the signal that Washington might become involved during a telephone conversation with Rice on Sunday. “She was worried. I saw she was in favour of a joint operation,” he said.”
President George W Bush, in a telephone conversation with his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul on Monday, promised US co-operation in Turkey’s struggle against Kurdish rebels.
“The president reaffirmed our commitment to work with Turkey and Iraq to combat PKK terrorists operating out of northern Iraq,” said White House national security council spokesperson Gordon Johndroe.
The Chicago Tribune reported that the US military was considering air strikes on the rebels.
Citing an official familiar with Bush’s conversation with Gul, the newspaper said cruise missile launches against PKK targets had been discussed but air strikes using manned aircraft were an easier option. “In the past, there has been reluctance to engage in direct US military action against the PKK,” the official told the Tribune.
“But the red line was always, if the Turks were going to come over the border, it could be so destabilising that it might be less risky for us to do something ourselves.
“Now the Turks are at the end of their rope, and our risk calculus is changing.”
The United States, which uses the Incirlik air base in southern Turkey as a major staging post for supplies headed to its forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, fears any unilateral action by Turkey could wreck efforts to stabilise Iraq. — Sapa-AFP
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