Powell flies to Ankara to seek Turkish support for war effort
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Your support makes all the difference.The American Secretary of State, Colin Powell, arrived in Turkey yesterday to seek help for the northern front in Iraq.
The Turkish government might offer more practical assistance to the war effort even though parliament voted narrowly to deny America the use of Turkish territory to launch an invasion.
General Powell will also seek to dissuade the government in Ankara from moving any more of its troops into Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq. Washington is deter-mined to discourage any military action that could destabilise the region by stoking ethnic conflicts. The US-backed envoy for the Iraqi opposition, Zalmay Khalilzad, has tried to make Ankara go through a special consultative body before taking any action. But Turkey reserves the right to intervene if there is a terrorist threat or a humanitarian crisis.
Although normally the closest of allies, relations between America and Turkey are strained. Ankara is keen to mend fences because the economy is suffering a big drop in revenues from tourism.
Meanwhile, with no sign of a refugee problem at its border with Iraq, the prospect of a Turkish incursion into northern Iraq is receding.
"There could be space for the Turkish side to move closer to the US," said one diplomatic source. "The authorities in Turkey are looking at ways to close the gap between the US and Turkey."
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish Prime Minister, could try again to push legislation through parliament allowing America to use its bases. But with public opposition to the war running at around 90 per cent in Turkey, the government may prefer a low-profile role.
General Powell's spokes-man, Richard Boucher, refused to comment on whether Turkey will be asked to help military operations and if the US hopes to exploit a northern front. He said: "They are really questions for the military whether we still want that."
The US Secretary of State will hold talks in Brussels tomorrow focusing on post-war peace-keeping and reconstruction. He is expected to canvass views on whether Nato – or at least some of its members – could play a role in post-war peace-keeping at a meeting of the organisation's foreign ministers.
General Powell is also expected to raise the issue of European contributions to the reconstruction of Iraq, when he meets senior EU officials.
Nato is divided on the war and earlier this year France led opposition within the organisation to plans to defend Turkey against possible attack from Iraq. That means that a coalition of willing allies is more likely to be suggested than a full Nato deployment.
The European Commission has begun contingency planning on reconstruction work but, without a UN mandate for the administration of Iraq after the war, EU aid is unlikely to be forthcoming. The Commis-sion said yesterday that it expects the UN to take "centre stage" in the rebuilding of post-war Iraq, arguing that it has, "a unique capacity and experience" to rebuild civil society in nations ravaged by war.
Jacques Chirac, the French President, has already warned that neither Britain nor the United States should take the lead role in governing Iraq.
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