October 19, 2007	Friday	Shawwal 6, 1428

BAGHDAD, Oct 18: Iraq sees only limited Turkish air strikes on Kurdish separatists in the north of the country and wants the guerrillas to leave as soon as possible, Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said on Thursday.

In an interview with Reuters, Zebari said the Iraqi government was ‘not comfortable’ with a vote in Turkey’s parliament on Wednesday giving its military the green light to hunt members of the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) in Iraq.

Turkey’s decision has alarmed Washington and other allies who fear an incursion into northern Iraq would bring chaos to the region, threaten oil supplies and harm US attempts to quell relentless violence in the country.

“If something happens it is possibly going to be air strikes on some suspected PKK positions,” Zebari said. “But to talk about a major military offensive and major cross-border incursion, that I do not expect.”

Mr Zebari’s comments were the first reaction from the Iraqi government since the vote in Turkey and he underlined that Baghdad saw further dialogue with Ankara as the only way to resolve the festering PKK problem.

“Our formal request is that they leave Iraqi soil and leave Iraq for its people and do not bring us more problems than we’re already suffering,” Mr Zebari said, adding that the PKK should leave ‘as soon as possible’.

“(Turkey has) a problem, we are ready to discuss it, talk about it and fulfil our commitments. But the starting point should be sitting at the dialogue table to agree on mechanisms.”

He said the Iraqi and Turkish governments were still talking about the issue and that he expected a Turkish ministerial-level team to visit Baghdad next week.

Mr Zebari warned there was a risk a Turkish incursion would be seen as an attempt to destabilise the one relatively calm region in Iraq, rather than just a targeted attack on the PKK.—Reuters