Plan for Turkish Troops to Aid U.S. in Iraq Stalls
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration's intense effort to put a Muslim face on its occupation of Iraq by adding a large contingent of Turkish troops appears to be unraveling as a result of Iraqi opposition.
Senior administration officials were understood to have serious doubts about the plan after what sources described as a strong recommendation by Iraq administrator L. Paul Bremer III that it be abandoned.
Two top U.S. policymakers equivocated when asked Tuesday about the prospects for Turkish troops to enter Iraq, a step approved by Turkey's parliament on Oct. 7. In Turkey, a top government official was quoted as saying he believed the deal had fallen through.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told reporters that he didn't know whether troops from Turkey would go to Iraq, and Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage, in an interview with Turkish television, acknowledged that the plan to send them had stalled. Neither was optimistic that agreement would be reached.
Declining the hard-won help would be a major disappointment for the United States because Turkey, in addition to promising a Muslim security force, was among the few nations willing to send troops in large numbers.
At the same time, last week's approval of a United Nations resolution that recognizes the legitimacy of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council has raised hopes that other countries would be willing to send troops or money.
The importance of foreign help was underscored Tuesday when Rumsfeld told reporters that the Pentagon had no plans to reduce the number of U.S. troops in Iraq within the next year. He said the current total of about 133,000 probably would remain constant, but most of the soldiers there now would be replaced by lighter, more mobile units by about April.
The Turkish contingent, estimated to number 10,000, was being counted on to help relieve the stretched U.S. force.
The opposition voiced by the Iraqi Governing Council stems largely from the Kurds, who make up one-third of Iraq's 25 million people and have a long history of antipathy for the Turkish forces along Iraq's northern border.
When asked late Monday whether he thought Turkish soldiers would go to Iraq, an unnamed senior Turkish Foreign Ministry official told Reuters news agency: "I don't think so."
