Obama urges Turkey’s Erdogan to withdraw troops from Iraq

Following an appeal from the White House, Turkey agreed on Saturday to pull more of its soldiers out of northern Iraq, where they have been reportedly battling the group calling itself the “Islamic State” (IS).

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.

Baghdad condemned it as a violation of Iraq’s sovereignty and consequently demanded those forces withdraw immediately. Further, he said that According to a 16 December statement from the Turkish General Staff, two Iraqis were killed and four Turkish troops were wounded when the training base in Bashiqa, in northern Iraq was targeted by rocket fire from positions under ISIL control.

When asked by reporters whether his country will resort to force to remove the Turkish troops, al-Jaafari said his country has no intention of starting a war with other countries, but “all options are available”.

“Iraq is requesting the Security Council to assume its global legal responsibilities under the UN Charter, and to adopt a clear and explicit resolution includes the following, first, condemnation of the Turkish occupation and illegal incursion against the will of a founding member state of the UN, in breaching the rules and provisions of the UN Charter and the norms of worldwide law”.

That’s what Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said in a United Nations news conference on Friday.

Turkey deployed hundreds of troops in the Bashiqa area this month, with the stated aim of protecting its military personnel training Iraqi militia to fight against Islamic State.

Turkey is pulling more troops out of northern Iraq in an effort to calm tensions with the Iraqi government, a day after US President Barack Obama urged Ankara to press ahead with a withdrawal.

“From the outset, we tried to resolve this matter through bilateral channels”.