Turkish forces will likely remain in Iraq: Govt. official
An Ankara official says the contingent of Turkish forces deployed to northern Iraq last week will likely stay in the war-battered country despite vociferous objections by Baghdad.
The 300-strong contingent, which is backed by 20 tanks, has been stationed on the outskirts of the city of Mosul, the capital of Iraq’s Nineveh Province. Ankara has described the deployment as a “routine rotation” in a training program for Iraqi forces and “reinforcement against security risks,” but Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has called the move “an incursion,” demanding immediate withdrawal of the troops.
“We expect them to remain,” the unnamed official told a group of foreign media representatives in Istanbul, AFP reported on Monday.
“It will depend on discussions but obviously our forces, as we know from the officers on the ground, from the demands of different groups over there, from what we are discussing with the central government and from what we have discussed with the KRG (the Kurdistan Regional Government), they will stay,” he said.
Baghdad has threatened to use “all available options,” including recourse to the UN Security Council, to have the Turkish forces removed from Iraqi territory. The Iraqi government also gave Turkey 48 hours on Sunday to withdraw the forces. On Monday, 24 hours before the deadline would expire, Abadi visited the country’s air force headquarters, where he said, “We must be prepared and ready to defend Iraq and its sovereignty.”
Earlier on Monday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Ankara had a “duty” to protect those forces against potential threats that other countries had influenced Iraq in its response to the deployment.
Turkish media have, meanwhile, reported that Ankara was setting up a base in the area, which is to house 600 soldiers.
Abadi has also accused Ankara of allowing the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group – which has been ravaging Iraq since June 2014 and has captured Mosul – to carry out the majority of its oil smuggling through Turkey. Iran and Russia have also made the same accusation.
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