Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi asked the UN Security Council to “shoulder its responsibilities”, and order the withdrawal of the Turkish troops stationed in the country’s north at a military base near Mosul.
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President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said Turkish troops deployed in Iraq for training purposes in the fight against the Islamic State were not on combat mission and their pullout was “out of the question”.
“This is a flagrant violation of the provisions and principles of the UN Charter and in violation of the sanctity of Iraqi territory”, a statement from his office said.
The Turkish military is helping to train local Iraqi volunteers and Kurdish peshmerga who are preparing for a long-anticipated offensive to retake Mosul, a major northern city seized by IS more than a year ago.
The Turkish government has already missed a deadline set by Iraq to pull out the troops from Bashiqa, prompting Baghdad to threaten to follow the case through the United Nations Security Council.
“There’s growing alarm from the Iraqi government”, Power said.
Iraq says it gave no authorization for the Turkish troops to cross the border.
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.
“We call on the Security Council to demand that Turkey withdraw its forces immediately… and not to violate Iraqi sovereignty again”, he wrote, in a letter addressed to U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power, president of the Security Council.
Earlier, Iraq’s top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, urged the government to show “no tolerance” for any infringement of the country’s sovereignty.
“The Turkish delegation was told that the only way to resolve the crisis is the full withdrawal of Turkish troops from Iraqi territory, and this will open the way for positive relation”, Thursday’s statement said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari have spoken by telephone at the latter’s request, the Russian Foreign Ministry has said.
They added that Turkish and Iraqi officials have agreed to begin new efforts to launch a mechanism for deeper security cooperation.
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“There are no any other military forces from any other country except Turkey on Iraqi soil”.
