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Turkey Urged Not to Support US, Britain's Aggression on Iraq
Iraq on Thursday urged Turkey not to allow US and British warplanes to continue using its territory for aggression against Iraq, saying it would harm Turkey's economic interests.
Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan made the appeal during his meeting with Suad Chaghlin, head of a visiting Turkish parliamentary delegation arriving here on Tuesday.
Ramadan said that allowing the US and British warplanes to mount patrols over northern Iraq from Turkey would not guarantee Turkey's security, but harm its economic and trade interests.
US and British have imposed two no-fly zones in northern and southern Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War, allegedly to protect the Kurds and Shi'ite Muslims respectively from possible attacks by Iraqi troops.
Meanwhile, Ramadan reiterated Iraq's keenness to improve relations with the neighboring country.
For his part, Chaghlin said that his visit was aimed at exploring more fields of cooperation and expressed confidence that the visit would enhance bilateral ties to serve the interests of both countries.
Iraq has repeatedly called on Ankara to free itself from the yoke of the US and Britain, and boost cooperation with Iraq to recoup its losses due to the decade-old UN sanctions imposed on Iraq for its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
Turkey has claimed that it has suffered a loss of some US$35 billion from the continuation of the sanctions, the longest in the UN history.
Iraq's relations with Turkey have been strained due to the Western allies' use of Turkish bases, Turkey's raids into northern Iraq against militants of its outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party, and differences over the water sharing of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers.
Turkey has been making efforts to improve its relations with the oil-rich neighbor.
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