ANKARA, Turkey, March 1 — Turkey’s parliament speaker said on Saturday a motion to allow U.S. troops into the country for a possible Iraq war had been rejected, an MP told reporter. The issue is crucial to U.S. military plans and Turkey’s relations with Washington. The vote, carried out behind closed doors, ended with 264 votes for and 251 votes against with 19 absentions — an apparent slim victory for the government.

But the opposition party challenged the result. The opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) argued that the government had not won the 267 votes needed to represent a majority of the 534 lawmakers present in the assembly. The government must now decide whether to try to present a similar resolution to the assembly again and try to gather the remaining few votes it needs (source: Reuters)