Iraq to cut Turkish cooking oil imports

Minister of Foreign Affairs Shaikh Khalid bin Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa met with the Arab League Secretary General Dr. Nabil Al Arabi, on the sidelines of the ministerial meeting of the Arab League Council in its extraordinary session, held at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo today. Stressing condemnation of this shameful act which is contrary to the Islamic religion provisions and all divine laws and constitutes a criminal violation of Human Rights, as well as contrary to Arab values and ethics and offend the fraternal relations between the Arabs.

“But at the Cairo meeting, Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said Turkey has insisted on ‘using the term ‘redeployment”.

The Turkish deployment “is an assault on Iraqi sovereignty and a threat to Arab national security”, the Arab league said, in a statement, adding that Turkish troops had “increased tumult in the region”.

Baghdad labelled the deployment an illegal “incursion” but Turkey said it was to protect Turkish trainers working with Iraqi forces battling the ISIS militant group. However, earlier this month, Turkey sent another 150 troops and 20 tanks to the region, increasing the total number of Turkish military personnel near Mosul to over 1,000. He said Turkish troops are re-stationed in Bamami camp in the north.

Turkey announced on Saturday that it had begun withdrawing troops in a bid to de-escalate a bitter row with Baghdad and following a call from US President Barack Obama.

Baghdad’s opposition to the Turkish presence has much to do with the internal politics of Iraq and Turkey’s intentions, real or perceived. Iraqi authorities, due to political tensions between Turkey and Iraq, have made a decision to replace imported cooking oil from Turkey with that of own production or imported from other countries. Last week, the Iraqi government brought the issue to the UN Security Council to demand the unconditional and full withdrawal of Turkish troops.