US against Turkish Invasion of Iraq

US against Turkish Invasion of Iraq

PanARMENIAN.Net
25.07.2006 14:41 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The United States appealed to Turkey to delay
its invasion of Iraq in an effort to destroy Kurdish insurgency
strongholds. Over the weekend, President George Bush telephoned Turkish
Prime Minister Recep Erdogan and urged a postponement of an invasion
of Iraq. Officials said Bush, in his second phone call in three days,
pledged to intensify US efforts to eliminate strongholds of the Kurdish
Workers Party, or PKK, in Iraq’s Kandil mountains. US Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice also contacted her Turkish counterpart Abdullah
Gul. They said whatever is necessary will be done. Matthew Bryza,
US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs,
held a press conference in Washington and promised concrete steps
would be taken against the PKK soon.

The most important item in Rice-Gul’s phone conversation was the
PKK issue. Gul told Rice that Turkey wanted an immediate, visible,
sensible, and concrete solution to the PKK issue. Turkey would be
seriously hampered in its aid efforts to Iraq as long as the PKK
existed, AFP reports.