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Iraqi PM calls crisis meeting over Turkey
threat to incursion into Iraqi Kurdistan
16.10.2007 |
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October
16, 2007
BAGHDAD, -- Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri
Al Maliki called an emergency cabinet meeting
Tuesday to discuss Turkish threats to launch an
incursion into Kurdistan region in northern Iraq to
crush Kurdish PKK rebels.
The meeting of his government's crisis cell comes as
Ankara seeks parliamentary approval for military
action in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region against
bases of rebels of the separatist Kurdistan Workers'
Party (PKK).
Maliki's office said in a statement that the meeting
would discuss "the development on the Iraqi-Turkish
border."
Maliki, it said, "will not accept military solutions
as a way of dealing [with issues] between the two
countries, even though we realize and understand the
worries of our Turkish friends."
It added that Maliki had stressed the importance of
implementing an agreement between the Iraqi and
Turkish governments signed last month to combat the
PKK. |
Iraqi Prime minister Jawad Nuri al-Maliki |
While the two countries agreed last month to
cooperate in the fight against some 3,500 PKK rebels
based in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, they
failed to agree on a clause allowing Turkish troops
to engage in "hot pursuit" - as they did regularly
in the 1990's - against rebels fleeing into Iraqi
territory.
"The Iraqi government will try, by all means, to
defuse the crisis with its neighbor Turkey, and is
concerned to maintain security and stability," the
statement said.
"We are ready to hold emergency talks with senior
[Turkish] officials to solve all remaining problems,
and give assurances that will help regulate
relations between the two neighboring states," it
said.
Tuesday's meeting coincides with a one-day visit to
Ankara by Iraqi Vice-President Tareq Al Hashemi, who
will discuss "all aspects of bilateral ties" with
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President
Abdullah Gul, a Turkish diplomat said.
The Turkish government Monday formally submitted a
motion to parliament seeking a one-year
authorization for a military operation in autonomous
Kurdistan region in northern Iraq.
The government plans to put the motion to a vote
Wednesday, and could opt to hold a closed-door
debate, said Sadullah Ergin, the parliamentary group
chairman of the ruling Justice and Development Party
(AKP).
At the weekend, Turkish troops shelled several
villages in Kurdistan 'northern Iraq', causing
damage to houses, but no casualties.
The Muslim Scholars' Association, one of Iraq's main
Sunni clerics' organizations, called for restraint.
"While we understand the need for Turkish national
security, we ask that Turkish politicians, known to
be long-sighted and not given to hasty decisions,
consider other options ... and spare the region
these calamities," it said in a statement.
"Turkish politicians can find alternatives ...
without getting involved in a war that Iraqis would
only understand as a new invasion of their country,
to be added to the declared US invasion and an
undeclared Iranian one," it said.
AFP
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