Obama’s outreach marked the latest effort in an ongoing USA diplomatic campaign to resolve the spat between Iraq and Turkey, and followed phone calls earlier in the week between Vice President Joe Biden and the prime ministers of both Iraq and Turkey.
Advertisement
U.S. President Barack Obama has urged Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to pull troops out of Iraq, amid a row that has split key members of the coalition fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
He also reinforced the need for Turkey to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Iraq.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry on Saturday acknowledged a “miscommunication” with Iraq over its recent deployment of troops to the Bashiqa military base, near the Islamic State-held city of Mosul.
The move by Turkey met with strong protest by Baghdad, backed by Moscow and Washington, and Turkey was forced to withdraw part of its troops from the training field. Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari asked the body to adopt a resolution demanding Turkey withdraw its troops immediately.
A woman walks past a building which was damaged during the security operations and clashes between Turkish security forces and Kurdish militants, in the southeastern town of Silvan in Diyarbakir province, Turkey, December 7, 2015.
Tensions have been running high between Baghdad and Ankara particularly since December 4, when Turkey deployed heavily armed soldiers supported by some two dozen tanks at the base.
“We don’t have designs for anyone’s territory, country or sovereignty rights”.
Advertisement
Ankara insisted the deployment was routine and necessary to protect the trainers, while Baghdad said it was unauthorised and protested to the Security Council.
