ISTANBUL, Oct 19: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has warned that a failure to preserve Iraq’s unity will trigger new bloodshed in the Middle East, a Turkish newspaper reported on Friday.

Iraq’s disintegration will “be a bomb that will blow up the Middle East,”the Radikal daily quoted Assad as telling a group of journalists in Istanbul during a visit to Turkey.

“We fully agree with Turkey that Iraq’s territorial integrity must be preserved,” he said.

Syria and Turkey both oppose any Iraqi Kurdish attempt to break away from the central government in Baghdad, fearing that this could fuel separatist ambitions among their own Kurds.

The Turkish parliament on Wednesday authorised military strikes in Kurdish-held northern Iraq within a year against bases of the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which uses the region as a springboard for attacks on Turkish targets across the border.

Following talks with Turkish leaders in Ankara on Wednesday, Assad said Syria sees a possible Turkish incursion into Iraq as “Turkey’s legitimate right” in the fight against terrorism.

The PKK, which has waged a 23-year armed campaign for Kurdish self-rule in southeast Turkey, is listed as a terrorist group by Ankara and much of the international community.

But the Syrian leader later finetuned his position, calling on Ankara to give Baghdad a chance to tackle the rebels.

“The problem cannot be resolved by being considered only as a military and security problem. Results cannot be obtained without the backing of political efforts,” Radikal quoted Assad as saying.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s government “should be given a chance,” he added.

—AFP