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Before leaving the Indian capital for Turkey, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Feb. 26 called for a quick halt to Turkish military operations in northern Iraq. Gates was quoted as saying, “I measure quick in terms of days, a week or two, something like that, not months.” He added that he has not heard from the Turks on how long they intend to continue the attacks in Iraq, and does not know whether the United States would consider halting its intelligence assistance to the Turks if it goes on too long. Gates also said that while there is a place for security operations, they should be accompanied by “economic and political initiatives that begin to deal with some of the issues that provide a favorable local environment” for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) rebels’ operations.
These comments come a day after the White House called for Turkey’s cross-border offensive against Kurdish rebels to be short but declined to give a timeframe, saying Ankara had acted responsibly so far. Meanwhile, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s chief foreign policy adviser Ahmet Davutoglu, after a meeting with Iraqi and U.S. officials in Baghdad, said Ankara had no timetable for withdrawal from northern Iraq until the PKK presence in the area had been eliminated.
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