Mullen Urges Turkey to Give Help on Iran, Extend Its Afghan Troop Command

President Barack Obama’s top military adviser, Navy Admiral Mike Mullen, urged Turkey to help ensure Iran doesn’t gain the capacity to make atomic weapons and to extend the period of its commands in Afghanistan.

“The mutual goal of Iran not achieving a nuclear-weapons capability, that we completely agree on, we just need to reinforce,” Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters today in Ankara. Both countries need to “do all we can to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

The U.S. needs the backing of Turkey’s military, which includes one of the world’s largest standing armies, as a critical player in the Middle East and Central Asia and a member of NATO. Turkey shares a border with Iraq and Iran and has about 1,700 troops in Afghanistan.

Mullen praised Turkey’s role in charge of international troops in the region around the Afghan capital, Kabul, which expires in October, and in providing police training and staffing for reconstruction teams.

“We would like to see Turkey sustain all of those efforts because they’ve been so important in Afghanistan and also because of the critical time in which we find ourselves in Afghanistan right now,” Mullen said.

Iraq Withdrawal

Still, Mullen sought to dispel reports in Turkish media suggesting the U.S. is putting pressure on its ally on issues including the withdrawal of heavy equipment and weapons from Iraq. He said the U.S. doesn’t expect to use Turkish land routes to remove weapons when the last American forces leave Iraq by the end of 2011.

“We do not transport weapons through Turkey, nor do we plan to in the future,” Mullen said. “Reports or suggestions to the contrary are simply false and completely without merit.”

Mullen met yesterday with the new head of the Turkish armed forces, General Isik Kosaner, and with Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul and is scheduled to meet today with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

On Iran, Turkey’s stated agreement to enforce the most recent United Nations sanctions is important regardless of its decision to oppose the measures in the Security Council in June, Mullen said. Turkey and Brazil brokered an agreement with Iran in May under which Turkey would receive unprocessed uranium from Iran and send back smaller amounts of enriched uranium for use in a medical reactor.

‘Note With Gratitude’

“I did not come here to question or in any way rebut Turkey’s decision not to support United Nations sanctions against Iran,” Mullen said. “I note with gratitude your government’s stated intent to enforce those sanctions.”

He also said the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is discussing locations for a potential missile-defense system of radar and interceptors, though he didn’t specifically address the plan with Kosaner.

“The membership of NATO believes that having a missile- defense architecture is a very important capability that needs to be put in place and evolve over time,” Mullen said. “There have been discussions with several members of NATO -- to include Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania -- in terms of parts of this.”

Mullen lamented deteriorating relations between Turkey and Israel over incidents such as the May 31 Israeli raid on an aid flotilla for the Gaza Strip that left nine Turkish citizens dead. He declined to comment on the incident, citing investigations under way.

“I would just hope that the countries can recognize the importance of stability in this part of the world and learn lessons from what happened here and move forward,” he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Viola Gienger in Ankara via vgienger@bloomberg.net.

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