Kish President Says Troops Will Stay in Iraq for Peshmerga

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that he would not bow to Iraqi demands to withdraw Turkish troops from a camp close to the IS-held city of Mosul.

A letter had been sent to Abadi written by Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu saying that no additional forces would be sent by the Turkish armed forces until Baghdad’s sensitivities were placated.

Erdogan however, defended his country’s troop movements, saying the 150-man Turkish force “are more of a training team rather than a combative force” and that they were there upon Baghdad’s insistence previous year, as quoted by Anadolu news agency.

Turkey deployed last Friday hundreds of troops and heavy weaponry to areas around the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, which is now occupied by the Daesh Takfiri group.

Additionally, its worth noting that the deployment comes as controversial Iraqi lawmaker Hanan Al-Fatlawi accuses John McCain of planning to insert some 100,000 troops in the country to include 10,000 U.S. soldiers and 90,000 from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, and of course, Turkey.

Turkey has since halted new deployments, but has so far refused to pull out troops already stationed in Iraq. The internal sections in the country’s are not just hampering the fight against the Islamic State group in the country’s, they are also supporting other powers to avoid the central government, he said.

“During a visit to Turkey in 2014, [Iraqi PM Haider al-] Abadi demanded [Turkish troops] for training”, Erdogan said.

It reiterates al-Abadi’s claims that the deployment was made without the knowledge and approval of the Iraqi authorities, while also calling on the U.N. Security Council to “assume its responsibilities”.

One diplomat on the 15-nation Security Council said on condition of anonymity that there were no immediate plans to convene a special meeting during the weekend in response to the Iraqi letter.

“But we are not here to doubt the ability of our commander-in-chief, and as a brigade we are ready”, said Rubaie, who wore a military uniform and had a large Iraqi flag on a pole resting on his shoulder.

Iraq’s religious leaders admonished Turkey during a sermon in Karbala. Baghdad has called the Turkish military incursion as a “flagrant violation” of worldwide law.