From Kurdistan, hesitation

U.S. officials met with Iraqi and Turkish diplomats here Saturday on the crisis threatening Iraq’s northern border, but key Kurdistan officials failed to offer assurances that they would move against Kurdish militants attacking Turkey from havens in their region, American officials said.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice led the U.S. delegation in meetings with the foreign ministers of Turkey and Iraq amid a broader two-day gathering of Arab countries and world powers to discuss Iraq’s many problems.

But Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, acknowledged that though the leaders of Iraqi Kurdistan have offered support, they have not yet taken any action that shows they will move against the militants as the United States and Turkey want.

“A lot of the right things are being said,” Crocker told reporters. “But what’s important is that the right things are done on the ground.”

Leaders of the Kurdish semiautonomous regional government in Iraq’s north, especially veteran Massoud Barzani, have crucial leverage with the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, whose fighters have been battling Turkish forces. Barzani’s political party has fought the PKK, but it is reluctant to commit too forcefully to a battle that could be costly and could alienate Kurdish popular sentiment.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has less leverage with the guerrillas, but he vowed Saturday to take action.

“Iraq should not be a base for attacks against neighbors,” Maliki told delegates at the meeting. “We will cooperate with our neighbors in defeating this threat.”

Crocker said that the meeting was a productive step in the run-up to a meeting Monday at the White House between President Bush and Turkish Prime Minister Recip Tayyip Erdogan.

The Turkish government, which has about 100,000 troops massed on its border with Iraq and is under intense domestic pressure to strike against the PKK, has said it will give the Bush administration only a few more days to find alternative solutions that would avoid destabilizing the northern Iraqi region.

Crocker rebuffed questions about a reported U.S. proposal under which Turkey, the United States and Iraq would begin a campaign to stop the 3,500-member militant group. He said the matter was between Bush and Erdogan, who will be accompanied by the No. 2 officer in the Turkish army to show his seriousness about possible military action.

Many observers, including some Iraqi officials, believe the United States would not object if Turkey decided to mount limited raids against the guerrillas. Asked whether the United States would object to such strikes, Crocker said, “The Turks are not likely to feel the need for our permission. They are a sovereign nation.”

Crocker also said that the United States hoped to have a fourth one-on-one meeting with Iranian officials about Iraqi security in the “next couple of weeks.” Those meetings have so far produced no agreement.

The ambassador said he had limited hopes for the new meeting, but added, “Let’s see where it goes.” He said Iraqi officials, who want the U.S. and Iran to work out their differences, are eager for a meeting. The United States has charged that Iranian weapons have been funneled to fighters in Iraq.

U.S. and Iranian officials had no exchange at this meeting besides a polite hello between Rice and Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, aides said.

But Rice did take Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem aside to urge that his government, long the dominant power in Lebanon, not interfere in the upcoming Lebanese elections. Some analysts believe groups loyal to Syria were behind a car bombing in September that killed a pro-Western member of parliament and six others.

Rice told reporters on her plane after the meeting that she warned Moallem that other countries were keeping an eye on what Syria was doing. “I made clear that everybody was watching,” she said.

U.S. officials met counterparts from Egypt, Jordan, France and the Arab League to discuss the Lebanese presidential elections, which U.S. officials fear could tip the balance of power away from the pro-Western faction in the country.

The meeting in Istanbul was the second ministerial-level gathering on Iraq this year. Many officials -- including some in the U.S. and Iraqi governments -- have complained privately that the sessions produce lofty declarations and not much action.

But Crocker said that Iraq’s Arab neighbors, which have long been suspicious of Baghdad’s Shiite-led government, are taking a new attitude toward the country. He said several countries are finally considering establishing embassies in Baghdad, a change he attributed to greater optimism about Iraq’s stability and future.

paul.richter@latimes.com