ANKARA, Turkey — Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he told Turkish leaders Thursday that they should end an offensive against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq as soon as possible. Yet even as Gates made his appeal, the Turkish military pressed ahead.
Gates told reporters after his talks with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other Turkish leaders that he made no threats to pull U.S. intelligence support.
“I think they got our message,” Gates said.
Turkish officials did not discuss any deadline for winding up the offensive, Gates said.
The cross-border fighting has put the United States in a delicate position. For one, it is close allies with Iraq and Turkey. Secondly, a prolonged Turkish offensive could jeopardize security in Iraq just as the U.S. is seeking to consolidate recent security gains.
In Baghdad, meanwhile, Iraq’s prime minister declared that national reconciliation was moving forward despite the embarrassing collapse Wednesday of a deal to hold provincial elections and a warning of possible escalating Shiite feuds over the failure.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who is part of the nation’s Shiite majority, spoke from the shrine of Imam Hussein, as the holiday of Arbaeen, a commemoration that marks the end of the mourning period that follows the anniversary of Hussein’s martyrdom in A.D. 680, wound up Thursday.
Lawmakers do not return until March 18, and it took them weeks to strike a deal last time. A legal adviser to parliament said that a simple majority will be enough to pass the measure again, but it also must go back to the presidential council for final approval.
