Ankara, Nov 08: Turkey's Foreign Minister said today that he hoped the United States would not need his country's help to stabilise Iraq in the future, after Washington failed to persuade Iraq's governing council to accept Turkish troops. The United States has been trying to solicit large numbers of foreign troops to relieve the US forces in Iraq. But in a major setback to us policy, turkey and the United States yesterday called off plans to deploy about 10,000 Turkish troops, which could have become the third-largest force in Iraq after Britain.
"We hope that no need arises for our help tomorrow," Gul said in an interview yesterday. "We hope they don't say that we can't cope with this."
Last month, Turkish Parliament authorised the government to deploy troops in Iraq within a year.
"Right now, we are not sending our soldiers. We determined that current conditions are not ripe to send soldiers," Gul said. "But this is a dynamic process, we are following it very closely."
Bureau Report