BAGHDAD (AP) — Turkey's prime minister visited Iraq yesterday and Kuwait promised to name its first ambassador in two decades, diplomatic victories for a fragile country that seeks fuller ties and clout with once-skeptical and suspicious neighbors.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was the first Turkish leader to visit Iraq in nearly 20 years, and his Iraqi counterpart, Nouri al-Maliki, warmly greeted him at Baghdad's airport. At a joint news conference, the two men agreed to pool their efforts to fight terrorism.
Turkey had expressed frustration over Iraq's perceived reluctance or inability to hunt Kurdish rebels who conduct hit-and-run attacks on Turkish targets from bases in northern Iraq.
Backed by U.S. intelligence, Turkey launched a cross-border ground offensive against the PKK rebel group in February. The brief campaign triggered protests from Iraq, although Erdogan said Iraq has cooperated with Turkish military operations on Iraqi soil and he expressed gratitude.
"The PKK is a terrorist organization, which is not only Turkey's enemy but Iraq's as well," Erdogan said. "We will not allow such attempts to poison relations in the region or between the two countries."
For his part, al-Maliki said he was pleased the leader of a strategic neighbor and regional economic power was in town.
Violence continues in Iraq, but Erdogan's visit reflected a security situation that has improved more rapidly than many expected, partly because of the U.S. troop surge in 2007 and new alliances between Sunni leaders and American forces.
Iraq is becoming increasingly bold in talks with Washington on an agreement that will govern the status of American troops in the country, and it now has time and confidence to reach out to other countries rather than lurch from one political and military crisis to the next.
"The Iraq of today is a constitutional Iraq that is searching for cooperation with the regional countries," al-Maliki said.
He said Iraq and Turkey had agreed their prime ministers would meet at least once a year, and he welcomed Erdogan's pledge to increase bilateral trade to $25 billion in the next 3-4 years.
The looming Kuwait move was also significant.
The Kuwait News Agency quoted the undersecretary of the Foreign Ministry, Khaled al-Jarrallah, as saying Kuwait would soon name a new ambassador to Iraq because of improved security.
Jordan and the United Arab Emirates have both named ambassadors in recent weeks, and Bahrain has said it's in the process of doing so. Kuwait is considered particularly significant, although it is small and less influential, because it has not had an ambassador to Iraq since Saddam Hussein's invasion of the country in 1990.
Ties resumed after the U.S.-led 2003 invasion of Iraq that toppled Saddam, and Iraq reopened its embassy in Kuwait, and appointed a charge d'affaires to lead it.
Arab countries' reluctance to place ambassadors in Iraq has irked al-Maliki's government. Arab countries have been leery of Iraq's violence and also the prime minister himself, who they believed was under Iranian influence.
But al-Maliki has won new respect and consolidated power by cracking down in recent months on Shiite death squads and the Mahdi Army, both in Baghdad and southern Iraq.
The Arab countries have been under intense pressure from the United States to recognize those steps by strengthening diplomatic ties.
Also yesterday, Iraq's Oil Ministry said it is close to signing contracts to build two new oil refineries in southern Iraq.
The ministry is expected to sign one contract for a 300,000 barrel-per-day refinery in Nasiriyah province by the end of July or early August, a senior oil official said.
The official said the ministry was studying proposals presented by international companies to build another 150,000-barrel-per-day refinery in Karbala. The official, who declined to name the companies, spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to make statements.
Iraq has the world's third-largest known crude oil reserves, with an estimated 115 billion barrels. But it suffers acute shortages of gasoline and other refined petroleum products because most infrastructure was damaged or destroyed in years of U.N. sanctions and war.
The U.S. military said it had detained 30 suspected al-Qaida in Iraq militants during three days of operations in Baghdad and other areas west and north of the capital. Those detained included the alleged leader of an al-Qaida in Iraq bombing network.
