Visiting Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said on Sunday
that all options, including military actions were possible to
resolve the Kurdish rebel issue in northern Iraq, the state media
reported.
"We have all kinds of options, all of them are on the table, we
can use diplomacy or military means," Babacan said after meeting
with his Iranian counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki.
"We demand all our friends to support us over our fight against
terror," he added.
Babacan also thanked Iran for its fight with the outlawed
Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK).
Mottaki, for his part, said he hoped the cooperation between
Iran and Turkey could solve this issue as soon as possible.
Turkey has massed up to 100,000 troops along the mountainous
border with Iraq in preparation for the cross-border operation to
crush the about 3,000 strong PKK rebels, which was approved by
Ankara's parliament earlier this month.
Turkish security sources have confirmed a series of attacks by
warplanes since last Sunday into Iraqi territory, although Ankara
has said it still hopes diplomacy can stave off the need for the
full-scale ground invasion.
Iran has recently been echoing Turkey's anger on a string of
violent actions by Kurdish rebels. Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad has slammed "terrorists" operating in northern Iraq in
telephone talks with his Iraqi and Turkish counterparts, according
to the state media.
Turkey was not the only one who had military conflicts with the
Kurdish rebels. In northwestern Iran in recent months, Tehran also
fought against the militant Kurdish group PJAK (Party of Free Life
of Kurdistan) which was linked to the PKK and launched a string of
deadly attacks against Iranian security forces.
(Xinhua News Agency October 29, 2007)
