SpaceWar.com - Your World At War
Turkish officials due at security meeting in Iraq Thursday
Istanbul, March 13 (AFP) Mar 13, 2024
Top Turkish officials including the foreign minister and intelligence chief will attend a security meeting in Iraq on Thursday, a Turkish ministry spokesman said.

Turkey's Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Defence Minister Yasar Guler and spy chief Ibrahim Kalin will all attend the meeting in Baghdad, spokesman Oncu Keceli told reporters Wednesday.

Turkey often carries out ground and air operations in northern Iraq against positions of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has waged a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state.

"Security and military cooperation will be a priority during the talks," said Keceli, adding that joint counter-terror steps would also be discussed.

"We see Iraqi authorities' portrayal of the PKK as a common security threat as a sign that Iraq has started to show the resolve to fight the PKK," the spokesman said.

Over the past 25 years Turkey has operated several dozen military bases in northern Iraq in its war against the PKK, which Ankara and its Western allies consider a "terrorist" group.

Last week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey would have permanently resolved problems related to the Iraq border "this summer".

Keceli also said he hoped an oil pipeline between Turkey and Iraq that was shut down in March 2023 would reopen "as soon as possible".

The details would be discussed during Erdogan's coming visit to Iraq, he added.


ADVERTISEMENT




Space News from SpaceDaily.com
Study questions assumptions about hidden alien technosignals
Dusty early galaxies shed new light on how the universe built its first giants
New Wenchang lunar pad completes first Long March 10 test

24/7 Energy News Coverage
UCSB scientists bottle the sun with liquid battery
Simulations reveal how plasma flow steers fusion reactor exhaust
US labs map liquid metal path to future fusion power plants

Military Space News, Nuclear Weapons, Missile Defense
BlackSky books major export deal for rapid deployment of Gen-3 imaging satellite
MDA Space forms 49North to expand Canadian defence capabilities
MTN to deliver secure SpaceX government satcom for defense customers

24/7 News Coverage
AI mapping sharpens global view of human development gaps
Satellite radar maps reveal rapid delta land loss
Flights map how aerosols shape Antarctic clouds



All rights reserved. Copyright Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.