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Iraq urges Iran to help defuse crisis with
Turkey
31.10.2007 |
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October
31, 2007
BAGHDAD,-- Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al
Maliki on Wednesday urged Teheran to help defuse the
crisis with Turkey over Turkey's Kurdish PKK rebels
and called for Iran’s support at a conference on
Iraq this week.
‘The prime minister urged Iran to help defuse the
border crisis between Turkey and the PKK (Kurdistan
Workers’ Party) and to give its entire support at
the Istanbul conference,’ a statement from Maliki’s
office said after the Shia premier met Teheran’s
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki in Baghdad.
Ankara has threatened to launch a military incursion
into Kurdistan region 'northern Iraq' to flush out
Turkey's PKK rebels who are fighting for self-rule
in the mainly Kurdish southeastern Turkey since
1984.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan visited Teheran
on Sunday, warning Ankara could launch an attack on
Turkey's PKK militants in Kurdistan 'northern Iraq'
but failing to win the support of neighbouring Iran
for a military strike. |
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki (L)
meets Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in
Baghdad. Maliki urged Tehran to help defuse the
crisis with Turkey over Turkey's Kurdish PKK rebels
and called for Iran's support at a conference on
Iraq this week. |
Iran, Iraq, Turkey and
Syria all have Kurdish minorities.
During a visit to Damascus on Monday, Mottaki and
Foreign Minister Walid Muallem of key regional ally
Syria pledged their support for efforts to defuse
the crisis.
Maliki’s office said the Shia premier also told
Mottaki of Baghdad’sdesire for peace in the region,
saying: ‘When Iraq rids itself of the difficulties
it faces, it would help the entire region.’
Meanwhile, Mottaki and his Iraqi counterpart Hoshyar
Zebari said the international conference opening in
Istanbul on Thursday night must focus on the
nation’s security rather than tensions with Turkey.
‘We discussed the Istanbul conference and its
importance,’ Zebari said at a press conference with
Mottaki.
‘We stressed that the conference must focus on
Iraq’s stability and security and not be distracted
by the current tension with Turkey and the terrorist
operations by the PKK.’
Mottaki said his talks with Zebari covered the
Istanbul meeting and economic ties between Baghdad
and Teheran, with trade between the two neighbours
now worth 2.2 billion dollars.
‘We hope that the Istanbul conference focuses on the
security in Iraq,’ he said.
Zebari also reiterated the need for a sustained
dialogue between Teheran and Washington on the
situation in Iraq and expressed readiness to host a
fresh round of talks between the arch-foes.
‘We discussed the necessity of continued dialogue
between Iran and the United States as it is positive
for us and for the region,’ Zebari said. ‘Abandoning
such a process would be negative.’
Mottaki said Teheran would consider holding such a
meeting ‘positively’ but stressed that Baghdad must
secure the release of Iranians being detained by the
US military.
The United States accuses Iran of seeking to
sabotage security in Iraq by supplying weapons,
including rockets, armour-piercing explosives and
mines that have killed American soldiers—claims
denied by Teheran.
Teheran wants the release of six Iranian officials
detained in Iraq by US forces who accuse them being
members of a unit of the elite Revolutionary Guards
on a covert mission to stir trouble in Iraq.
‘The Iraqi government is responsible for their
release. We have taken the needed measures to
release them,’ Mottaki said without elaborating.
AFP
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