Russian Federation omits own United Nations envoy’s Iraq remarks from transcript

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan says that Turkish troops had been stationed at a military base in northern Iraq at the request of Iraq’s leader since 2014, al-Jazeera reported on Wednesday.

Speaking to his counterpart earlier this week, the Turkish foreign minister emphasized Ankara’s respect for Iraqi territorial integrity and said further troop deployments had been halted for now.

The Russian envoy also criticized the U.S.-led global coalition of 65 countries that is conducting airstrikes against the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq for doing so without Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s consent. The Turkish force comprises of 150 soldiers only, and is located in the vicinity of the city of Mosul which ISIS has been occupying for the previous year and a half.

Turkish Armed Forces’ tank battalion deployed in the Iraqi province of Nineveh tasked to prepare Kurdish Peshmerga military forces to fight the IS terrorist organization (ISIL, ISIS or Daesh) in the framework of an agreement with the Iraqi authorities.

“They want a weak prime minister who’s not able to challenge the parties and unable to challenge the corrupt”, said Sajad Jiyad, a fellow at the Iraqi Institute for Economic Reform.

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.

On Wednesday, Turkey issued a warning advising its citizens to avoid unnecessary travel to or within Iraq and urging vigilance.

Aljazeera says that the Iraqi foreign ministry called the Turkish ambassador in Baghdad on the mat, complaining about the incursion.

Iraq has asked North Atlantic Treaty Organisation to put pressure on Turkey to withdraw its troops from northern Iraq immediately.

Abadi spoke to Jens Stoltenberg, NATO secretary-general, by telephone, the statement said, calling the deployment a violation of Iraq’s sovereignty.

However, Iraq’s ambassador to the United Nations appeared to play down the dispute on Tuesday, saying bilateral talks between the neighbouring states to end the row were proceeding favourably.

Baghdad insists the forces be withdrawn while the Turkish government has said the troops are merely part of a routine rotation of a training program for Kurdish peshmerga fighters.

One senior Iraqi lawmaker said Abadi’s angry public reaction was a reflection of pressure from Iran – one of Abadi’s strongest allies.