Iraqi Council Wins Support for Turkish Troop Stand
Mon October 13, 2003 08:18 AM ET
By Jalil Hamid
PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia (Reuters) - Iraq's U.S.-picked Provisional Governing Council Monday stuck by its opposition to Turkish troops joining U.S. occupation forces there and won support for its stand from neighboring Jordan.
The Turkish military said it was talking to the United States about where its troops would be deployed in Iraq and warned soldiers would respond to any Iraqi Kurd attack.
The council's foreign minister and Jordan's King Abdullah, speaking ahead of an Islamic summit in Malaysia, both acknowledged a need for the international community to play a greater role in the reconstruction of Iraq.
But with the United States and its critics still debating what role the United Nations should play in Iraq, the council's Hoshyar Zebari said Muslim nations preparing for the two-day summit had expressed reluctance about sending troops.
King Abdullah, speaking in Singapore, said neighbors such as his own country or Turkey should not get involved.
"No border country should play an active role because all have an agenda," he told reporters on his way to the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) summit, which begins Thursday.
"It is not in the interests of Iraq as its neighbors can't be honest."
The second in command at Turkey's military General Staff delivered a warning in Ankara that underlined the risks.
"The necessary response will be given if Iraqi Kurds attack our convoy," Lieutenant-General Ilker Basbug said.
Zebari, speaking on the sidelines of a meeting of the OIC's foreign ministers, said the council recognized the need to internationalize the rebuilding of Iraq and win greater support from other nations -- but not neighbors.
"The Governing Council feels it is better not to involve and engage any of Iraq's neighboring countries in peacekeeping missions," he told reporters in Malaysia's new administrative capital, Putrajaya, after meeting other ministers.
Turkey has told the United States it would prefer to station its troops around Salahaddin, north of Baghdad, or to a region west of the capital.
MUSLIM RELUCTANCE
Zebari said he had only encountered reluctance from other Muslim countries on the issue of sending troops.
"I don't think there is any desire by the Muslim countries to send troops. That is the feeling I am getting from my initial contacts," he said.
Other delegates suggested there was a groundswell of support for a resolution calling for U.N.-mandated peacekeepers to replace U.S. forces. An early draft said a timetable should be agreed between the United Nations and the Governing Council for an end to occupation by U.S.-led forces.
"There will be a wish from the Muslim world on that issue," a Turkish delegate told Reuters.
Turkey is the only OIC member currently willing to send troops to help the U.S.-led forces in Iraq.
But in an interview with the London-based Asharq al-Awsat newspaper published Monday, Zebari hinted at a compromise.
"The mission of Turkish forces must be limited to peacekeeping and not involve intervention in Iraq's internal affairs and also supply lines must be under the control of coalition and local or Kurdish forces," he told the newspaper.
ANNAN, PUTIN TO ATTEND
Iyad Allawi, the new head of the Iraqi council under the rotating leadership, will participate in this week's summit, along with some 35 heads of state or government, making it the largest gathering of Muslim leaders since the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Russia's President Vladimir Putin are among the invited guests.
The summit was also expected to finalize resolutions condemning Israel for attacks on Palestinians, and for carrying out an air strike on Syrian territory a week ago.
Support for the Palestinian cause is widespread across the 57-member OIC but the group is riven by differences over Iraq.
Washington is pushing for a new Security Council resolution giving the United Nations a broader mandate to try to persuade reluctant countries to help in stabilizing Iraq.
"Americans want more nations to send troops to reduce the pressure on their own troops but they want U.N. interference under their control," a Saudi Arabian delegate said.
Pakistan, one of the Muslim countries the United States hopes will help take the burden off its 131,000 troops in Iraq, said it would send troops if it had a U.N. mandate, was part of a multilateral Muslim force, or received an Iraqi request that would ensure the troops were welcome. |
