Iraq Urges Restraint From Turkey After Threat to Attack Kurdish Rebels

Oct 17, 08:02 AM

Current Headlines: By Paul de Bendern

Iraq urged Turkey not to launch an attack on Kurdish separatists in northern Iraq after the Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, threatened to strike the rebels when conditions were right.

Baghdad sent Tareq al-Hashemi, the Sunni Arab Vice-President, to Ankara and called for urgent talks to head off military action that Washington fears could sow chaos in an area so far spared much of the carnage afflicting other parts of Iraq.

"A political solution must be given priority to resolve this critical issue," said Mr Hashemi in Ankara yesterday. "We can understand Turkey's anger but what I'm aiming to achieve during my visit is a common understanding," he said ahead of talks with the Prime Minister, Foreign Minister and President.

Mr Erdogan's cabinet asked parliament on Monday for permission to launch cross-border offensives after a spate of Kurdish separatist attacks. MPs are likely to give their approval today.

The Prime Minister said yesterday that securing permission for an attack did not mean a military incursion was imminent. Instead, he said: "We will act at the right time and under the right conditions ... This is about self-defence." The prospect of a strike into mainly Kurdish northern Iraq helped push oil prices to over $86 (43) a barrel. The Turkish lira traded down almost 1.5 per cent against the dollar.

Turkey, for its part, argues that the United States and Iraq have done too little to curb the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels attacking eastern Turkey in pursuit of an independent state. Dozens of soldiers and civilians have been killed in recent weeks.

Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi Prime Minister, called for a "crisis cell" to monitor developments along the Turkish border and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, warned of a refugee crisis in the event of a Turkish operation. Some analysts say an operation is more likely after a vote last week in which a US congressional committee branded killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during the First World War as genocide - a charge Turkey denies. REUTERS

Originally published by By Paul de Bendern in Ankara.

(c) 2007 Independent, The; London (UK). Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.