By DPA
Washington : US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will visit Ankara next week to caution Turkey against invading northern Iraq to go after Kurdish rebels for recent attacks on the Turkish military before she heads to Israel and the West Bank.
Rice will arrive in Ankara Nov 2 to meet Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul and then travel to Istanbul for a Nov 2-3 international meeting on Iraq, the US State Department said Wednesday.
Rice has been in contact with Erdogan and Gul urging them to not bow to domestic political pressure by launching an incursion into Iraq to take out PKK separatists who this month carried out two deadly attacks on Turkish soil.
Rice has warned a Turkish invasion could undermine one of Iraq’s relatively safe regions populated mostly by Kurds and has urged the Turks and Iraqis to work together to eliminate the threat posed by the PKK from northern Iraq.
“The Iraqis have to deal seriously with this and so do we,” Rice told the House Foreign Affairs Committee Wednesday.
Rice will visit Jerusalem and Ramallah Nov 4-6 as she tries to lay the groundwork for a US-hosted international conference on the Israeli-Palestinian peace conference later this year.
Rice is pressing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to agree to a basic outline for the discussions aimed at setting the foundations for the creation of a Palestinian state.
Rice expressed confidence the meeting will take place despite scepticism from some Arab countries on whether progress could be made. Rice warned that progress on resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must be made to avoid further radicalisation of the Middle East.
“Without a serious political prospect for the Palestinians that gives to moderate leaders a horizon that they can show to their people that, indeed, there is a two-state solution that is possible, we will lose the window for a two-state solution,” Rice said.
“You will see the further radicalisation of Palestinian politics — of politics in the region,” she said.