In a phone conversation with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan late Friday, U.S. President Barack Obama asked his counterpart to take additional steps in order to ease the tension with Baghdad.
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He said that since the closed door briefing to the Security Council on 8 December 2015 by UN Assistant Secretary-General Miroslav Jenea on the Turkish troop deployment in northern Iraq, Baghdad and Ankara have held high-level bilateral discussions on this issue.
Ankara deployed hundreds of troops to Bashiqa in early December, saying the force was part of an global mission to train and equip Iraqi forces to fight Islamic State. “Turkey reaffirms its commitment to deepen its cooperation with the Global Coalition to counter DAESH”, read the statement.
At the same time, Obama “reinforced the need for Turkey to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Iraq”.
Erdogan reiterated that Turkish troops in northern Iraq were there to fight against Daesh.
Turkey withdrew some troops earlier this week from Basheeqa base, but Iraq has continued to demand a “full withdrawal”. One Turkish soldier was killed.
According to Jaafari, UNSC complaint was his last resort.
A convoy of almost 10 vehicles left the Bashiqa Camp on Monday morning and traveled to another region in northern Iraq, Turkey’s Anatolia news agency said.
It came days after Turkish Prime Minister Ahmed Davutoglu’s office said it had chose to reorganise its military personnel at Bashiqa following talks with Iraqi officials. This is injustice against Turkey.
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The daily also reported that Turkey plans to increase its contact with the Iraqi government. “Nor unlike others, do we have any plans or ambitions over Iraqi territory”.
