Iraq Wants Turkish Troops Out of the Country

Turkey’s statement comes a day after U.S. President Barack Obama urged Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in a phone call to “de-escalate tensions” with Iraq by continuing to withdraw Turkish forces.

Turkey withdrew some troops to another base inside Iraq’s Kurdistan region last week and said it would continue to pull out of Nineveh province, where the camp is located.

Tensions with Iraq have played out against the backdrop of Turkish concerns about Kurdish rebels, who have been engaged in renewed fighting with Turkish troops since July.

Turkey’s UN Ambassador Halit Cevik said the deployment had been taken out of context and that additional troops had been sent to the camp to provide force protection due to increasing threats.

He also stated that the Turkish troops would stay on in Iraq until Mosul had been freed from Daesh occupation.

The Iraqi government on Monday welcomed pullout of Turkish troops from Iraqi territory and expressed its hope to complete withdrawal.

Before Obama’s call on Friday to Erdoğan, US Vice President Joe Biden called Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu twice, with the latest call being carried out on Thursday.

But Iraq’s government has insisted that it never invited the Turkish forces and that their presence constituted a violation of Iraqi sovereignty. “Because taking this issue to various worldwide platforms would serve no other goal than to undermine the solidarity of the global community against Daesh”, Cevik told the Security Council.

As a committed member of the global coalition against the Islamic State (IS) militant group, Turkey is ready to cooperate with Iraq to more closely coordinate joint efforts to defeat and destroy the terrorists, added the statement.