Turkey

Army presses for new vote on U.S. troops

Turkey’s powerful military said Wednesday it supported letting in U.S. troops for a war in neighboring Iraq, boosting pressure on legislators to reconsider their rejection of a measure allowing the American deployment.

The comments in Ankara from Gen. Hilmi Ozkok, the nation’s top officer, came a day after Turkey’s top political leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, indicated that the government planned to reintroduce a new troop deployment resolution.

The two men are widely considered the most influential leaders in Turkey. The military is the most respected institution in the country and has led three coups since 1960.

Their statements seemed to have an immediate impact on parliament, where the resolution failed Saturday by just three votes.

“The conditions are changing fast,” said Dengir Mir Mehmet Firat, a deputy chairman of the governing Justice and Development Party. “Many legislators are saying that they will cast a positive vote if the motion is brought to parliament again.”

Washington, D.C.

U.S. seeks relief plan for post-Saddam Iraq

To prepare for a potential humanitarian crisis in Iraq, the Bush administration is planning to ask the Security Council to transfer future control over Iraq’s purchase of food and supplies from Baghdad to the United Nations, whether or not the council supports a U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

The administration, anticipating a day when President Saddam Hussein no longer rules, wants the United Nations to have the authority to acquire goods quickly during a war. Some U.S. officials are worried that a rejection of force could hinder relief work, if the Security Council proves reluctant to change the arrangement that permits Iraq to spend its oil receipts.

Unresolved is the long-term role the United Nations might play in the administration of Iraq and its reconstruction. Although U.S. officials traveled this week to New York to brief executives of the world body, they were unable to answer questions about who would run Iraq after an initial post-conflict phase.

United Nations

Two Iraqi diplomats ordered to leave U.S.

The United States has ordered two Iraqi diplomats to leave the country, Iraq’s U.N. ambassador said Wednesday.

Ambassador Mohammed Al-Douri said the two men were ordered out of the United States because their behavior was in contradiction to their diplomatic status.

This is the usual diplomatic language that refers to spying.

Al-Douri said the men were informed of the expulsion order Tuesday evening and were given 72 hours to leave the United States.

London

Saudis sentence 95 for links to al-Qaida

Saudi Arabia has convicted 95 people of links to al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and sentenced them to prison terms of one to three years, a Saudi human rights campaigner says.

Saudi authorities are holding 400 others in jail, Abdelaziz al-Khamis, head of the London-based Saudi Center for Human Rights Studies, said.

He said authorities had detained a total of 2,500 for questioning since the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, most in the past three months as the United States geared up for possible war against Iraq.

The 95 were convicted of charges that included belonging to or supporting al-Qaida, and received sentences from one to three years, al-Khamis said late last week.

Instead of holding trials, a cleric who had read official intelligence reports “came to the prison cells, asked the prisoners a few questions and sentenced them on the spot,” al-Khamis said.