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Turkish Foreign Minister Yasar Yakis announced on Tuesday in Ankara that 6 Mideast countries will hold a ministerial meeting on the Iraqi problem in Turkey's largest city of Istanbul on Thursday.
Yakis told reporters in Ankara that ministers of Turkey, Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Iran will attend the ministerial meeting, which will adopt a decision on a summit of the regional countries.
Turkish Prime Minister Adbullah Gul has recently visited Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Iran, conducting what he called "active peace diplomacy" aimed at finding a solution to the Iraqi crisis by peaceful means.
The above five countries appreciated Turkey's peace efforts and agreed that leaders of the six countries will meet and issue a peace declaration and a summit meeting will be preceded by a ministerial session.
Asked for comments on recent reports appeared in New York Times that Turkey had given permission to the United States to use military bases, Yakis said that he did not have a statement saying permission was given for usage of bases.
"If such a thing is written, this is not right. We only authorized our military authorities to negotiate with the US military authorities. Military authorities of the two countries would determine what kind of a cooperation could be done," Yakis said.
(Xinhua News Agency January 22, 2003)
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