Turkey grudgingly joined Washington's coalition of the willing last night, as deputies approved by 322 votes to 202 a motion opening Turkish airspace to US aircraft.
The decision also opened the door to Turkish plans to send troops into neighbouring northern Iraq, an incursion Ankara says is necessary to control a possible flood of Iraqi refugees and prevent Kurdish separatist fighters based in Iraq from crossing into Turkey.
An earlier motion that would have enabled US forces to deploy through south-eastern Turkey was rejected by parliament on March 1st. This far more limited second motion will shorten the sorties of US aircraft stationed in Europe and the US, and facilitate plans to airlift a small, lightly armed US force into northern Iraq. But Washington again made it clear yesterday that overflight rights alone were not sufficient to justify the multibillion dollar aid package Ankara had been negotiating for months.
"We asked all our NATO allies permission to use their airspace," said US Assistant Secretary of State Mr Marc Grossman yesterday. "Until now, apart from Turkey, they have all said yes."
Turkey was expected to open its skies to US planes after a cabinet meeting which was called late yesterday evening. Turkish ministers refused to speculate on whether overflight rights would be extended to the RAF, as British Foreign Minister Mr Jack Straw had requested on Wednesday.