ISTANBUL, Turkey — Turkey’s premier indicated Tuesday that an offensive against Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq would not immediately follow the expected go-ahead from parliament, as oil prices soared amid international calls for restraint.
The Iraqi government urged Turkey not to send troops across the border to pursue separatist Kurds in mountain hideouts, calling for “a diplomatic solution” to tensions that have raised fears of a new front in the Iraq war.
Tareq al-Hashemi, one of Iraq’s two vice presidents, flew to Ankara and met with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other Turkish officials before a parliament vote today that is widely expected to authorize cross-border attacks during the next year.
“The passage of the motion in parliament does not mean that an operation will be carried out at once,” Erdogan said. “Turkey would act with common sense and determination when necessary and when the time is ripe.”
There has been speculation Turkey’s government sought approval for an offensive as a way to pressure U.S. and Iraqi authorities to move against Turkish Kurd rebels operating from northern Iraq.
PKK rebels have been fighting for autonomy in Turkey’s Kurdish-dominated southeast since 1984 in a conflict that has killed thousands of people.
Public anger over attacks by Kurdish guerrillas is running high, but government leaders know that two dozen military campaigns into Iraq since the 1980s failed to eradicate the rebel Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK. And a cross-border attack could strain ties with the United States, a NATO ally that opposes any disruption of its efforts to stabilize Iraq.
Light, sweet crude for November delivery rose $1.94 a barrel to $87.07 Tuesday on the New York Mercantile Exchange after hitting a record $88.20. Traders attributed the surge partly to concerns that Turkish military action might disrupt Mideast crude oil supplies.
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