U.S. to Seek Support of Syria, Iran : Strategy: Baker commends Turkey for closing Iraqi pipeline and freezing Kuwaiti assets. He hints he will ask Ankara to play a greater role.

Secretary of State James A. Baker III, flying to enlist the Turkish government in a growing drive against Iraq, announced Wednesday that the United States is contacting Syria and Iran about the possibility of cooperating in the global effort.

Speaking with reporters on his way to a refueling stop at this base in the Azores, Baker said he will dispatch Assistant Secretary of State John Kelly to Syria to explore with President Hafez Assad the possibility of U.S.-Syrian action against Iraq, long a bitter rival of the government in Damascus.

Baker also said that the United States has contacted Iran through its regular “third country” channel to discuss possible Iranian action. Iran and Iraq fought an inconclusive eight-year war that ended in a cease-fire two years ago Wednesday.

The possibility of coordinated action with Syria, a radical Arab state with which Washington has long maintained the most chilly of relations, would be remarkable. And U.S. relations with Iran have been frozen since the 1979 Islamic revolution, in which more than 50 Americans were seized and held hostage.

For years, the U.S. government has included Syria on its list of nations that support international terrorism. Iraq was removed from the list several years ago.

“John Kelly is going to Damascus in order to explore these questions with Syria,” Baker said. “We’re all aware of the history of Syrian-Iraqi relations.”

Syria and Iraq are ruled by rival branches of the Arab Baath Party, and relations between the regimes have been tense for years.

Baker, who stressed Turkey’s strategic importance as the site of the most sophisticated military bases bordering Iraq, is expected to assure Ankara today of firm military and financial support if it goes along.

He said he is “very pleased” with Turkey’s decision to stop the flow of Iraqi oil through a Turkish pipeline. But he hinted that he will ask Turkey to do even more when he meets with President Turgut Ozal and other leaders.

“We have been particularly pleased with the forthright position that Turkey has taken,” Baker said. “They have closed the Iraqi pipeline; they have frozen Kuwaiti assets. I am going to Turkey to ensure the continued close coordination between Turkey and the United States, to let the Turkish government know that they will continue to have our strong support and the support of the NATO alliance.”

He said he planned to emphasize NATO’s doctrine of “collective defense,” in which an attack on Turkey, a North Atlantic Treaty Organization member, would be considered to be an attack on all 16 members of the alliance.

Although Baker declined to say if he would suggest the use of Turkish bases for possible military action against Iraq, he repeatedly emphasized Turkey’s “strategic location” on the Iraqi border.

A ranking State Department official aboard Baker’s aircraft said Turkey would be compensated for giving up an estimated $5 million a day in revenue from operation of the pipeline.

“I think a way can be found to assure that Turkey will not suffer out-of-pocket financial losses as a result of what they might do,” said the official, who declined to be identified.

The official said the U.S. government would not “foot the bill” for the Turkish aid, and he implied that most of it would come from billions of dollars in blocked Kuwaiti assets in the United States, Turkey and other countries. He said the action would “respond to the wishes of what we consider the legitimate government of Kuwait,” which was deposed by the Iraqi invasion.

Baker, who will go from Ankara to Brussels to brief NATO representatives Friday, said the crisis created by the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait marks the start of the post-Cold War era, in which the alliance, formed 43 years ago to counter the Soviet Union, must now face threats “from a different direction.”

In the past, NATO members have been reluctant to project allied power beyond Europe, although some member nations have joined in military action outside of the normal NATO area.

Baker also said he has spoken by telephone to Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze on a daily basis since the crisis erupted last week.

“The Soviet Union has been very supportive of our condemnation of the Iraqi aggression,” Baker said.

Meanwhile, Baker said the arms and oil embargo on Iraq that was voted Monday by the U.N. Security Council has obtained so much support from the world’s governments that it has become “somewhat self-enforcing.” He said the level of compliance may preclude the necessity of mounting a naval blockade of the Persian Gulf to prevent Iraqi oil from getting through.

The ranking official predicted that, following some initial hesitation, a substantial number of Arab states would join in the U.S.-led effort to isolate Iraq. He said at least six Arab nations have agreed to participate in the multinational force in Saudi Arabia.