BAGHDAD, Oct. 31 — Iraqi officials asked for Iran’s help on Wednesday in negotiating a diplomatic solution to the standoff with Turkey over Kurdish guerrillas who have been using northern Iraq as a base to stage raids on Turkish troops across the border.
Tensions between Iraq and Turkey over the issue threaten to overshadow other topics at a regional meeting that starts Thursday in Istanbul, which Iraq hoped would focus on its internal security.
The United States, which will participate in the meeting, said Wednesday that it has stepped up the amount of intelligence it shares with Turkey on the Kurdish rebels, known as the P.K.K.
Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq met with the Iranian foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, on Wednesday and asked him to intervene on Iraq’s behalf at the meeting.
“The prime minister asked the Islamic Republic to present their full support to Iraq during the Istanbul meeting and also to participate in solving the border crisis between Turkey and the P.K.K.,” a statement from Mr. Maliki’s office said.
The P.K.K., or the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, has killed at least 42 people in Turkey in the past month, mostly soldiers. The group, which has supporters among Turkey’s Kurdish minority as well as in Iraq, has fought in the past for a separate Kurdish state in Turkey but now appears to be focused on winning rights for Kurds living there.
Turkey has threatened to invade Iraq in pursuit of the rebels but has so far refrained.
Iran has been sympathetic to Turkey’s position, because Kurdish guerrillas have also been attacking Iran, but it has loyalties to Iraq which, like Iran, has a Shiite-majority government. Iran has also worked closely with the Kurdish leadership in Iraq.
In comments at a news conference on Wednesday, the Iraqi foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, said that he had discussed the situation with Mr. Mottaki and that he had warned of “serious consequences” if Turkey were to invade Iraq.
“It will have consequences for the entire region,” he said he told Mr. Mottaki.
However, Mr. Zebari also said Iraq needed help from its neighbors on many other issues, such as border security, refugees and economic investment. “The Istanbul meeting should not be hijacked by the P.K.K. terrorist activities in Turkey,” he said.
The issue is a thorny one for most of the meeting’s participants. The United States, which will be represented by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, has close relations with Turkey and the Kurdish regional government in Iraq, and is eager not to antagonize either one. Turkey, Iran and Syria, all of which are sending representatives, have Kurdish minorities.
The secretary general of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, and a number of other foreign ministers are also expected to attend.
Iraqi diplomats said they were worried that after the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, met with President Bush on Nov. 5, Turkey may take action against the Kurdish guerrillas, a step that could further antagonize Iraq’s Kurds.
“They are under a lot of pressure from the public, so we think they will do something,” said a senior Iraqi official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter. “We hope they will not.”
Mr. Erdogan has asked the United States to help the Turks take “concrete steps” to reduce the P.K.K. threat.
In Washington, Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon spokesman, confirmed that the United States military was giving “lots of intelligence” to Turkey in its effort to halt the rebel attacks.
Pentagon officials have said that they have sent spy planes over the region to gather information on the P.K.K., and Mr. Morrell said the United States had given Turkey “an increased level of intelligence” as a result of Turkey’s “recent concerns.”
He also said the military was “making efforts to help them get actionable intelligence,” a term meaning timely and accurate information that can be used to attack a specific target. That is “a pretty high standard,” he said.
Although the Kurdish regional government is part of Iraq, the central government has little control over its policies. The Kurdish area functions as a semiautonomous state with its own military force that is only nominally under the control of Iraq’s Defense Ministry. That means that for Iraq to oust the Kurdish guerrillas, it would need the Kurdish government’s support. Traditionally, Kurds have been reluctant to take on fellow Kurds.
During the news conference, Mr. Mottaki said the Iranians were prepared to meet again with the United States to discuss Iraq’s security. But he signaled his country’s displeasure over the American military’s detention of Iranian officials in Iraq.
American troops detained five Iranian officials in Irbil in January; they have yet to be released. The Americans said the five had links to Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards. The Iranians said they were diplomats.
In August, American troops detained a delegation of six Iranian Energy Ministry officials, but they were released a day later. The Iraqi government has asked the United States to release the Iranians still being held.
“The arresting of Iranian consular officials is a very big strategic mistake,” said Mr. Mottaki, who also objected to a comment by General David H. Petraeus that the Iranian ambassador in Baghdad was a member of the Quds Force, the elite Revolutionary Guard unit.
Also on Wednesday, six unidentified bodies were found in Baghdad.
Thom Shanker contributed reporting from Washington.
Add comment