Turkey, Iraq Hold Talks on Turkish Troops Withdrawal from Iraq
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iraq's foreign minister held talks with high-ranking Turkish delegates, including Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs Feridun Sinirlioglu and the head of the National Intelligence Organization, Hakan Fidan, according to the Iraqi Foreign Ministry.
A Turkish delegation held talks with the Iraqi authorities over Turkey's military presence in northern Iraq, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry said on Friday in a statement obtained by Sputnik News.
"Iraq demanded that Turkey definitively withdraw its forces from the Iraqi territory. The Turkish side expressed its fundamental agreement and said that [the decision] would be announced after their return [to Turkey] and consultations with the government," the ministry's statement said.
The meeting took place on Thursday in Baghdad. Iraq's foreign minister received high-ranking Turkish delegates, including Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs Feridun Sinirlioglu and the head of the National Intelligence Organization, Hakan Fidan.
On December 4, Turkey deployed about 150 troops and 25 tanks to a base in the Iraqi Nineveh province, without Baghdad’s approval.
According to Ankara, the aim of the deployment was to provide security to Turkish soldiers deployed earlier to train Kurdish militia who are fighting Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), also known as Daesh in Arabic, a group outlawed in a number of countries, including Russia.
Iraq has rejected the claims, stressing that the Turkish military presence had not been requested. Russia has described the incident as a breach of international law. Iraq has called on United Nations Security Council members to develop an international stance on the incident.
