Iraq’s Abadi requests UN take up issue of Turkish troops

The dispute over the deployment has soured relations between Ankara and Baghdad, which denies having agreed to it. Ankara says the troops were sent as part of an global mission to train and equip Iraqi forces to fight IS, which has seized large parts of Syria and Iraq.

Thousands of Iraqi protesters have staged demonstrations across the country to denounce Turkey’s deployment of military forces near the embattled northern city of Mosul.

His representative, Ahmed al-Safi, relayed the words of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani during a Friday sermon in the city of Karbala.

He added that the Muslim people of Turkey would not be happy with their government’s wrong approach toward neighboring states and Muslim nations, calling on Turkish officials to focus on their own country’s security and economy and to respect Islamic values as well.

On December 4, Turkey deployed about 150 troops and 25 tanks to a base in the Iraqi Nineveh province, without Baghdad’s approval.

The recent deployment of Turkish military troops to Bashiqa, near Mosul, caused a diplomatic spat between Ankara and Baghdad.

Iraqi prime minister Haider Al Abadi, whose high-profile reform programme has accomplished little in the way of lasting change, can ill afford another setback now, but repeated calls for a Turkish withdrawal have not led to a pullout.

It didn’t say what the troop reorganisation would entail, but said understanding was reached to begin work on creating mechanisms to deepen co-operation together with the Iraqi government on security problems.

Baghdad said their presence was a “flagrant violation” of global law.

“The parties that mainly provoke this incident are not the Republic of Turkey and Iraq”.

Earlier this week, the Russians – now at odds with Turkey over the downing of a Russian military plane – said that they would ask the United Nations to look into the matter although Iraq at the time remained noncommittal about a formal complaint.

According to Iraq’s letter, Turkey deployed the troops “without any consultation or coordination with the federal government of Iraq”.

The Turkish ambassador to Iraq was summoned by the Iraqi Foreign Ministry on Saturday and was told of the Iraqi demand that Turkey immediately withdraw the troops.

“If the Iraqi government can not take measures to thwart terrorist attacks that maybe carried out from there against our country, we will take these measures ourselves”.