Iraq’s top Shiite cleric speaks out against Turkish troops

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said Turkish troops deployed in Iraq for training purposes in the fight against the Islamic State were not on combat mission and their pullout was “out of the question”.

Turkey has halted further deployment after Baghdad threatened to take the case to the UN Security Council.

But he said Turkey and Iraq would decide together if troops needed to be increased or reduced.

Iraq’s top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani today criticised the deployment of Turkish troops and tanks to the country’s north without Baghdad’s approval.

The foreign minister said Ankara had stopped further deployment of troops to the region due to “our respect to Iraq and the Baghdad government”.

“The number of our soldiers (in northern Iraq) might increase or decrease depending on the number of Peshmerga being trained”, Erdogan said.

The withdrawal of Turkish forces will pave the way for “positive relations, coordination and cooperation between the two neighboring countries in various fields”, the statement said.

Erdogan has also announced that Turkey, the USA and the Iraqi Kurdish Regional Government would meet on December 21 to discuss the regional issue. The venue for the meeting was not yet clear.

The Turkish premier informed Biden of the training activity in Bashiqa since March and measures taken to protect the trainers and the camp there. Turkey denies violating Iraq’s sovereignty, saying the troops sent last week to the Bashiqa camp, northeast of Mosul, would only assist forces fighting the Islamic State.

Last weekend, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry summoned the Turkish ambassador and demanded the Turkish forces be withdrawn.

Davutoglu said Turkey’s presence in Iraq was to promote stability in the region, “because we do not want to be neighbors with Daesh”.