Shiite militia members gathering in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square are demanding the withdrawal of Turkish troops from northern Iraq.
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Power told reporters following a council meeting on Burundi that any troop deployments in Iraq need to be done with the consent of the Iraqi government. We don’t have that luxury.
“This is a flagrant violation of the provisions and principles of the United Nations charter and in violation of the sanctity of Iraqi territory”, a statement from his office said.
“We agree with every step the prime minister is taking right now”, said Samawi, who was dressed in a suit.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi should have struck “with an iron fist at the beginning”, rather than make concessions to Massud Barzani, the leader of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region, and others, he said. “There was a deployment, not for combat, but to protect soldiers providing training there”.
“We call on the Security Council to demand that Turkey withdraw its forces immediately… and not to violate Iraqi sovereignty again”, Iraqi Ambassador Mohamed Ali Alhakim said in a letter to U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power, president of the Security Council this month.
He added: “Assistance with military training and advanced technology and weapons to fight the Islamic State terrorist entity must be based upon bilateral and multilateral agreements and in full respect of the national sovereignty and Iraqi constitution, and in coordination with the Iraqi armed forces”. Al-Sistani’s spokesman, Sheik Abdul Mehdi Karbala’i, did not explicitly name Turkey. “After these demands, we set up the Bashiqa camp”. This sense that Abadi is being pushed around is only growing with Turkey’s presence.
Turkey deployed last Friday hundreds of troops and heavy weaponry to areas around the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, which is now occupied by the Daesh Takfiri group.
“There is no logic behind this issue (troop deployment)”, Hojjatoleslam Kazem Seddiqi said in an address to worshipers at weekly Friday Prayers in the Iranian capital, Tehran, Press TV reports.
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Earlier, a government statement said Turkish intelligence chief Hakan Fidan and Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioglu met with Iraqi officials in Baghdad and the sides agreed to work toward forming “new mechanisms” to deepen cooperation in security.
