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| Iraq |
| Turkey: Military option remains on the table |
| 2007-11-04 |
| ISTANBUL - Military options “remain on the table” in the crisis over Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq, Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said Saturday after Iraq announced new steps to curb the separatists. “There are various methods in the struggle against terrorism -- political dialogue, diplomacy... and military instruments,” Babacan told a joint press conference with Iraqi counterpart Hoshyar Zebari. “All instruments remain on the table for Turkey,” he said. ”Whether they will be used or not, or when they will be used, is a matter of strategy.” A senior Turkish government official said Ankara “does not see any new element” in the measures that Iraq said it enacted Saturday against the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The PKK uses bases in northern Iraq for attacks on Turkish targets across the border. “The parties maintain their positions,” the official added, referring to Turkey, Iraq and the United States. Iraqi officials said Saturday they were setting up new checkpoints in northern Iraq to try to restrict the movement of PKK rebels and cut their logistical supplies. The Iraqi Kurdish authorities, accused by Ankara of harbouring and even aiding the PKK, began to shut down the offices of a PKK-linked political party. Ankara wants the Iraqi authorities to urgently crack down on and close PKK camps in the mountains of northern Iraq and arrest and extradite the group’s leaders. But Zebari, himself a Kurd, insisted that “it was difficult indeed” to capture the PKK leaders. “Those people are armed and up in the mountains,” he said. But he added that the Iraqi authorities would issue “a look-out list for people wanted by the Turkish government.” He stressed that the measures envisaged by Iraq would help restore confidence between Baghdad and Ankara and might pave the way for joint military action against the PKK in the future. “I would not discount anything in the future but that depends on first agreeing on this jointly... We need to restore the confidence that has been shaken between us in order to be able to work together,” he said. “At the moment we are talking about some achievable measures to enhance confidence between us and Turkey. “There will be actions taken by the Iraqi government and the regional authorities” in northern Iraq, he said. The Iraqis are “very serious on cooperating and giving active support” in combatting the PKK, he said. |
| Posted by:Steve White |