Turkey has little appetite for military action against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq, a step that would have "enormous implications" for Ankara as well as Washington, a Pentagon spokesman said Wednesday.
Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary, said senior US officials urged restraint and a diplomatic solution to the crisis when they met with their Turkish counterparts over the weekend in Ankara.
The Turkish parliament, however, voted Tuesday to give the government authority to launch cross border operations against PKK rebels in Kurdish areas of northern Iraq.
"The Turks are clearly frustrated, they are clearly angry. But I also think there is not a great deal of apetite to take this next step," said Morrell.
"It would be an enormous step. It would have enormous implications, not just for us but for the Turks. I don't think there is any rush to war on the part of the Turks."
Asked why US forces in Iraq did not take on the PKK, which Washington has designated a terrorist organization, Morrell said "there is only so much we can do at one time."
"We have our hands full dealing with Al-Qaeda, extreme elements of Jaish al Mahdi, dealing with other terrorist elements and insurgents within Iraq. So that is where our efforts are concentrated at this time," he said.
"We don't deny they have a problem," he said of the Turks. "We are very sympathetic to the fact that they have been subjected to terrorist attacks by members of the PKK, but we are really urging the best way of dealing with this terrorist is by diplomatic means," he said.
Morrell said Turkey has had three battalions inside northern Iraq since the late 1990s, but they have been largely confined to their base and their movements must be coordinated with coalition forces.
Turkey is believed to have a larger force that could move across the Iraqi border with little warning.
US officials are worried about Turkish reaction to a US congressional resolution denouncing the World War I "genocide" of Armenians in the former Ottoman Empire.
Barring US access to Turkish airspace and roads could disrupt supplies to US forces in Iraq, and sow turmoil in one of the few parts of Iraq that is stable.
