dieses schreibt Reuters dazu:
<h3>Cheney Says No Current Plans for Attack on Iraq </h3>
March 19, 2002 05:33 PM ET
ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit said on Tuesday Vice President Dick Cheney had assured him there were no current plans for military action against Iraq.
Speaking after meeting Cheney in Ankara, Ecevit told reporters that the U.S. Vice President"conveyed that a military operation was not on the agenda in the foreseeable future."
Cheney himself said in Israel earlier on Tuesday that no decision had been taken in Washington on a military strike against Iraq over accusations that Baghdad is building up weapons of mass destruction.
Cheney arrived in Turkey on Tuesday on the last leg of an 11-nation Middle East tour for talks that Ecevit said touched on the Middle East, Afghanistan and Iraq.
Ecevit said talks were continuing with U.S. and British officials on whether Turkey will take over command of the international peacekeeping force in Afghanistan.
A U.S. official on the trip said no decision came out of the meeting on Turkey's potential command role. But Washington made a new pledge of $228 million in aid to sweeten the offer.
The official said the Bush administration would ask Congress on Wednesday to grant Ankara the aid, which could be used to help defray the costs of commanding the force.
White House sources said on Tuesday that President Bush was set to propose an emergency spending package of as much as $20 billion, of which an estimated $1 billion would go to allies in Washington's anti-terrorism campaign.
Turkey has already contributed around 260 troops to the 4,800-strong International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) that was set up to support the new interim government in Kabul after U.S.-led forces ended the rule of the Taliban.
Britain took on the leadership of the force initially but has said it wants to reduce its troops in Kabul.
Turkey has long been tipped as the most likely successor to Britain in commanding ISAF but has hesitated to commit itself, insisting on clarification of the scope and mandate of the force. Ankara, which is currently overcoming more than a year of financial crisis, has also sought assurances of financial help.
NATO ally Turkey has opposed military action against its neighbor Iraq for fear strife could seep across the border to its own restive Kurdish population, as well as further destabilize its already crisis-racked economy.
But Turkish support and permission to use its bases could be crucial for a U.S. operation against Iraq. American warplanes already use a Turkish base to patrol a no-fly zone over northern Iraq, in place since the end of the 1991 Gulf War.
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