1st LD: Arab League demands immediate Turkish withdrawal from Iraq

The Arab League demanded in a ministerial meeting in Cairo on Thursday an immediate Turkish withdrawal from the Iraqi territories, the Egyptian state TV reported.

In the meeting at the level of Arab foreign ministers requested by Baghdad, Arab League Secretary-General Nabil al-Araby described the deployment of Turkish troops in Iraq as "clear violation of the international law."

Turkey has recently announced that it had started withdrawing its troops from Iraq following a call from U.S. President Barack Obama, yet the Iraqi foreign minister insisted that the immediate withdrawal needs to be practically done in action not statement.

"We differentiate between a statement of withdrawal and real evacuation from the Iraqi territories," Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari told a press conference following the meeting.

"It is possible for any Turkish official to announce that Turkey has decided to withdraw its troops, which is easy and maybe fast to say. But our irrevocable decision is the necessity of immediate withdrawal," Jaafari stressed.

Earlier in December, Ankara deployed forces in a base in Iraq for a training program to fight against the Islamic State (IS) militant group.

"We have inherited a lot of IS members from different parts of the world, and 40 percent of the Iraqi territories were under their control, which now declined to 17 percent due to the Iraqi strikes," the Iraqi foreign minister continued, "It's the Iraqis alone who run the battle against the IS in Iraq." Endit