BAGHDAD (AFP)
Turkey reassured Iraq on Tuesday that it wants a diplomatic solution to the problem of Kurdish rebel rear-bases but 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 organization," 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 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 southeastern 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 rear-bases of the PKK which has stepped up its insurgency in recent weeks.
Turkish members of parliament have authorized the government to take military action in northern Iraq to flush out the rebels if it deems it necessary.
Turkish anger over the presence of 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 U.S. calls to hold back from unilateral action.
Erdogan, who was in London for talks with his British counterpart Gordon Brown on Tuesday, said he had discussed with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice the possibility of joint action against the rebels.
In a telephone conversation with his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul on Monday, President George W. Bush promised U.S. cooperation in Turkey's struggle against Kurdish rebels.
The Chicago Tribune reported that the U.S. 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 have 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.
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 stabilize Iraq.
In a video-conference with Maliki, Bush pressed for more action against the PKK from both the authorities in Baghdad and the autonomous Kurdish regional government in northern Iraq. |
