Turkish minister pledges to release more water to Iraq

Turkish Environment Minister Veysel Eroglu on Thursday pledged to release more water to Iraq in response to Iraq's frequent demands, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported. 
   Eroglu made the remarks at the closing session of the first ministerial meeting of Turkey-Iraq High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council being held in Istanbul from Thursday to Friday, Xinhua reported.
   Iraq's pressing water problem has dominated the agenda of the meeting, during which Iraqi ministers frequently expressed their water need, Anatolia quoted Turkish officials as saying.
   Eroglu said his country would try to release as much water as possible.
   "There is a serious water crisis in Iraq. We are taking this into account," he said after meeting with the Iraqi and Syrian irrigation ministers on the sidelines of Thursday's meeting.
   "But our own capabilities are limited," he noted.
   He said Turkey will increase the amount of water it releases to Syria and Iraq through the historic Tigris and Euphrates rivers but warned that it is suffering from a severe drought.
   Turkish officials also stressed that water problem could not be solved only by supplying it, but Turkey could extend every type of technical support to Iraq to provide water management and rational use of water.
   The meeting, presided by Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and his Iraqi counterpart Hoshyar Zebari, brought together seven ministers from each side, including the representatives for energy, transportation, housing, environment, interior, agriculture and health.