Turkey Raises Stakes with US
ANKARA (Feb. 20) - Turkey raised the stakes on Thursday in its poker game with Washington over U.S. troops' use of its bases in any war on Iraq, seeking written guarantees of a big aid package and Turkish military access to northern Iraq.
Washington, frustrated by the Turkish tactics, said its latest offer -- of $6 billion in grants and up to $20 billion in loans -- was final and that it would deploy troops elsewhere in the region if there was no deal by the end of the week.
Foreign Minister Yasar Yakis said Turkey would not provide Washington with a reply by the end of the today to its requests that it allow U.S. troops on its soil for a planned invasion of Iraq.
Secretary of State Colin Powell said earlier Thursday the United States expected to hear back from Turkey by the end of the day on whether it accepts a final U.S. offer of aid in exchange for opening its bases to serve as staging points for U.S. forces.
''A reply today is not being discussed,'' Yakis was quoted as telling reporters by the state-run Anatolian news agency.
The dispute jeopardized U.S. plans to launch a northern front in an invasion of Iraq, even as the United States and Britain sent more troops to the Gulf and worked on a new U.N. resolution authorizing the use of force to disarm Iraq.
Despite opposition to war from other U.N. Security Council members, both nations say they will push ahead with their plan to disarm Iraq by force if it fails to rid itself of alleged weapons of mass destruction. Iraq says it has no such weapons.
In Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said U.N. arms inspectors in Iraq were coming under pressure to produce reports which would back the case for war, and urged them to remain objective in carrying out their task.
In a clear attack on U.S. policy, but without naming the United States, Ivanov told a news conference the inspectors were "being subjected to very strong pressure in order to provoke their departure from Iraq, as occurred in 1998, or to present to the Security Council assessments which could be used as a pretext for the use of force against Iraq."
The inspectors were withdrawn from Iraq in 1998 shortly before U.S. and British aircraft attacked Iraq.
Ivanov did not rule out vetoing a new U.N. resolution which endorsed the use of force against Iraq, but said Moscow had no objections to examining a new resolution if it was aimed at helping the inspection process.
Persistent jitters over the Iraq crisis kept the gold price firm and the dollar weak on financial markets, though oil prices were slightly lower.
IRAQI OPPOSITION GATHERS
In northern Iraq, controlled by Kurds opposed to the Baghdad government, Iraqi opposition parties gathered to seek unity and a stake in government if and when President Saddam Hussein is removed from power.
The mountainous region was also the focus of Turkish haggling with Washington over aid to offset the effects on the fragile Turkish economy of any war in neighboring Iraq.
Turkish leader Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey would not open its bases to U.S. troops unless Washington guaranteed aid and Turkey's role in a war.
"This will not happen without a signature," Erdogan told the newspaper Yeni Safak. "Only when we reach agreement will we send the (troop deployment) request to parliament."
As well as fearing the economic fallout of a war, Turkey is keen to head off a refugee flow, an Iraqi Kurdish drive for independence which could inspire Turkey's own Kurdish minority to revive demands for autonomy, and wider regional instability.
Turkish military officials and local authorities said up to 7,000 Turkish troops were already in northern Iraq to prevent an incursion by Turkish Kurdish guerrillas massing near the border.
On the diplomatic front, the United States and Britain were not expected to push their new resolution to a vote until next week, an indication that any attack on Iraq would not take place until the second week of March at the earliest.
The two countries still have to overcome stiff opposition in the Security Council, where France, Russia and China -- who want to give more time to the arms inspectors now working in Iraq -- could veto the new resolution.
ARAB LEAGUE SUMMIT
The Arab League said it would move its annual summit to Cairo from Bahrain and bring it forward to March 1, enabling it to focus on a looming war against member state Iraq. Arab states publicly oppose a U.S.-led war, but many are U.S. allies and host U.S. forces, putting them in a difficult position.
"The matter is about avoiding a dangerous war which would lead to instability in the region," League Secretary General Amr Moussa told the United Arab Emirates' daily al-Ittihad.
In Kuala Lumpur, four members of the Security Council -- whose votes could hold the key to U.N. backing for military action against Iraq -- said they wanted a peaceful solution to the crisis and that arms inspectors should be given more time.
Officials of Cameroon, Guinea, Pakistan and Chile were speaking on the sidelines of a preparatory meeting for a Non-Aligned Movement summit next week.
REUTERS Reut12:04 02-20-03
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