Turkey Will Provide Military Base to U.S.

The U.S. that came out victorious of the war against Afghanistan moves to widen its war on terrorism to Iraq, which has refused permission for the inspection on the weapons of mass destruction.

The New York Times reported that the Turkey government has already agreed to provide its Military base for the attack against Iraq to the U.S. and an ambassador of an influential country that had opposed to the expansion of the war to Iraq changed its position recently.

Bulen Acevit, the Prime Minister of Turkey, will visit the U.S. to discuss with U.S. President George W. Bush about the expansion of war on terrorism to Iraq next month.

Particularly, there is a rumor that Turkey agreed with the U.S. to deploy its Military to the Northern Iraq to support the Kurd rebels and to take 2 oil regions in Kirkuk and Mosul of Northern Iraq as a reward.

The U.S. already dispatched a delegation led by Ryan Crocker, the deputy assistant secretary of state for Middle Eastern affairs, to call together all Kurd rebel groups to overthrow the regime of Saddam Hussein.

Middle Eastern sources reported that some Arabic countries are moving to change their previous position to strongly oppose the attack on Iraq. However, the Russian Vice Foreign Minister strongly expressed his objection to the U.S. military action over Iraq as a next step of war on terrorism.

Meanwhile, the British Daily Telegraph reported that over 20,000 U.S. troops have been recently dispatched to Qatar and Kuwait. The U.S. previously moved its Ground Forces Headquarters to Kuwait due to the regional time difference.

lailai@donga.com