Iraq vows to go after Kurds who attack Turkey

MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

ISTANBUL, Turkey — Under pressure from the United States, Iraq pledged Saturday to crack down on Kurdish guerrillas who have launched attacks on Turkey from hideouts in northern Iraq.

“We in the Iraqi government are going to actively help Turkey to overcome the PKK terrorist threat,” said Iraq Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, who met with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan on the sidelines of the a two-day international conference of Iraq’s neighbors.

Turkey wants Iraq to shut down the PKK camps, arrest the group’s leaders and extradite them. Turkish government officials expressed skepticism over the Iraqi promise.

The issue is also expected to dominate Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s talks with President Bush on Monday in Washington.

The Iraq-Turkey border crisis dominated the second ministerial-level meeting on Iraq’s future. Members of the 32 delegations — representing all of Iraq’s neighbors, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, the Arab League and European Union — spent most of their time on other regional issues. Most top representatives left the main hall early for where the real business was done — in the quiet side rooms of an ornate Ottoman-era palace on the north bank of the Bosporus.

Rice held a series of one-on-one sessions throughout the day, meeting with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Mouallem, Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, as well as bringing together Iraqi and Turkish representatives on the PKK issue.