Baghdad: 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 yesterday.
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.
"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."
"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," 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.
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.
"My expectation is that there will definitely be resistance, especially if the army enters populated areas, then there will be resistance from the Peshmerga and the people there," he said, referring to the Kurdish armed forces.
The Kurdish administration called for direct negotiations with Ankara.
Thousands of people took to the streets in several northern Iraqi towns on Thursday to protest against the Turkish vote.
Meanwhile, Turkey wants to give diplomacy a chance, Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said.
A meeting in Istanbul of the foreign ministers of Iraq's neighbours set for November 2 will be "an occasion to discuss all problems in Iraq including our problem with terrorism," Babacan said after meeting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
"I want to reaffirm that the fight against terrorism is carried out in cooperation with the United States and with the Iraqi central government," Babacan said.
Also, Kuwait urged Turkey to exercise utmost restraint.
"We have been following with great concern the developments on the Turkish-Iraqi borders. We hope that our brothers in Turkey will observe the maximum degree of self-restraint," Foreign Minister Shaikh Mohammad Al Sabah said.
