Turkey: The Turkish cabinet yesterday urged parliamentary approval for sending troops to help stabilise Iraq, offering a potentially important boost to US calls for help from its allies in overseeing the country's transition.
After a five-hour cabinet meeting, Mr Cemil Cicek, government spokesman, said ministers had decided to send troops for one year, pending agreement by the national assembly, which meets today.
The cabinet met after US State Department and Turkish foreign ministry officials agreed last week on a plan of action over PKK Kurdish insurgents based in a mountainous region of northern Iraq.
The details of the plan have not been made public, but Turkey had said it would not send troops to Iraq until the US agreed to take action against the PKK, which recently ended a five-year ceasefire in its fight for a state for Turkey's 20 million Kurds. The announcement from Ankara came despite growing scepticism in New York at prospects for a new UN resolution, after the US last week presented a new draft text in response to calls for a greater United Nations role, and a quick hand-over of authority.
Several Security Council members said the resolution did not go far enough, and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said its calls for a partial UN role in preparing an Iraqi constitution and elections were unworkable. But UN officials also said countries should rally together in helping Iraq, as no one would gain from its collapse.
Turkish sources at the UN stressed that any Turkish troop deployment would aim to help Iraq's transition, rather than bolster the occupation. The situation, said analysts, was different to that before the war, when parliament rejected a US request to use Turkey as a staging base.
"The government has done its homework well and will have no trouble getting the assembly to ratify its motion," said retired ambassador Cem Duna.
"They already reached an agreement with the Turkish army on how to go about it. The public is more amenable."
UN sources said troop numbers could be in the 7,000-10,000 range. Responding to concerns within Iraq at the presence of Turkish troops, Turkey claimed any intervention would be strictly neutral.
Despite Ankara's confidence, however, officials concede Ankara's job would have been made easier by another UN resolution. The UN Security Council was expected to meet yesterday afternoon to discuss the US text, but several diplomats said there was little sign of a shift in Washington's strategy. A US administration official said: "What we would like to see now is more commitment, rather than playing games on a resolution."