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Roundup: Turkish PM, U.S. Biden discuss tensions with Baghdad as Erdogan says troops not likely to leave Iraq

Xinhua, December 11, 2015 Adjust font size:

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told U.S. Vice President Joe Biden over phone late on Thursday that Ankara respects Iraq's sovereignty despite Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed that he will not pull troops out of Iraq for the moment.

According to the sources with the office of the prime minister, Biden demanded a phone call with the Turkish leader. In their conversation, Davutoglu informed Biden about the military training operations in Bashika and the security measures in the camp.

He also said that Ankara will continue its anti-terror operations against Daesh (Islamic State or IS in Arabic) in coordination with Baghdad. The official sources also added that the two leaders decided to continue negotiations on the matter.

Earlier in the day, Erdogan said that withdrawing troops from Iraq is out of the question while reiterated that the soldiers are in the country for a training mission.

The deployment of Turkish troops dates back to 2002 and the additional troops were deployed in 2014 in response to a request from Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Abadi, Erdogan told a press conference.

"Turkish troops in Mosul are not there as combatants; they are trainers. Their numbers may vary depending on the size of Kurdish peshmerga troops. It is out of the question, for now, to pull them out," he said.

The crisis was triggered over the weekend as reports stated that a Turkish training battalion, equipped with armored vehicles, was deployed near the city of Mosul in order to train Iraqi paramilitary groups against Islamic State militants.

However, Ankara claimed that sending troops to Iraq was in response to increased skirmishes with the IS in Mosul, the capital of Nineveh province which has been under IS control since June 2014.

Also on Thursday, Iraq contacted the five permanent member states of the UN Security Council for condemning Turkey's deployment of troops on its soil, the foreign ministry said.

Baghdad also demanded an Arab League extraordinary session to "discuss the consequences of the Turkish breach (to Iraqi sovereignty) and adopt an Arab stance against it," according to a ministry spokesman.

Earlier this week, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi urged NATO to force Turkey to immediately withdraw its troops from Iraq.

Turkish troops are in Iraqi territory "without the knowledge nor permission of the Iraqi government, and Iraq demanded via diplomatic channels that Turkey immediately withdraw its troops, within a maximum of two days," a statement quoted Abadi telling NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg during a phone conversation.

"The situation violates Iraq's sovereignty, and NATO must use its power and force Turkey to immediately withdraw its troops from Iraqi territory," read the statement.

An earlier statement by Iraq's Council of Ministers, headed by Abadi, said "Iraq's sovereignty and its geographical borders are a red line particularly since there exists no signed agreement between Iraq nor any accord permitting Turkey to trespass the country's borders under any pretext."

The council declared that it authorized Abadi to take the necessary measures regarding the deployment of Turkish troops in Iraq. Endit