KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 12: Pakistan said on Sunday it would not follow Turkey’s lead and offer troops to help the US-led occupying forces in Iraq unless their presence was legitimized by a UN resolution or an Iraqi request for help.

In an interview with Reuters, Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri restated Pakistan’s conditions for a troop deployment in Iraq, saying this would be considered only if they were welcomed by the Iraqi people.

“It won’t even serve US interests if our troops are perceived as occupation forces,” Mr Kasuri said.

The minister, in Malaysia for an Organisation of the Islamic Conference summit, disagreed with OIC Secretary-General Abdelouahed Belkeziz’s call at the weekend for the eviction of all foreign forces from Iraq.

The Pakistani minister said it was unrealistic for the United States to withdraw from Iraq, as no one had enough troops to replace them as a stabilisation force.

But he said foreign forces in Iraq needed to be legitimized so they were seen not as occupiers, but rather as guardians of the transfer of power back to the Iraqis.

Speaking just as news broke of another car bomb attack in Baghdad at a hotel used by US officials and members of the Iraqi Governing Council, Mr Kasuri echoed fears that the United States could be sliding into a quagmire in Iraq.

“That danger is there, and we’ve tried to tell some of our interlocutors in the United States that it’s in US interest to bring the international community along — that’s what we feel.”

The United States had named Pakistan, Turkey, Bangladesh and India as countries that could help relieve the burden on the 131,000 US troops in Iraq, though Washington subsequently admitted New Delhi was unlikely to participate.

The minister said it would help if other nations were to send troops as part of a multilateral Muslim force, but fellow-Muslim Turkey’s decision to offer 10,000 troops to help the US-led forces was not the precedent Pakistan needed.

“There’s a difference between Turkey’s position and ours because Turkey has a common border (with Iraq) and it perceives it is in its natural interests,” he said.

The Turkish offer has been opposed by the US-appointed Governing Council, which does not want troops from neighbouring countries on Iraqi soil.

“We would like to be welcomed by the people of Iraq if we sent our troops,” Kasuri said.

“This could happen in various ways — if there were other Muslim countries besides Pakistan, or if for example there was a call, that would be very good, by the United Nations itself for a multilateral Muslim force.

“If that could not happen, (it would be good) if there was an appeal from the people of Iraq,” he said.—Reuters