Alwaght- Iraq is taking action aimed at pressurizing Turkey to withdraw hundreds of its troops from the semi-autonomous Kurdish region, while calling on the United Nations Security Council to intervene in the escalating crisis.
The Iraqi government has decided to close its commercial office in Istanbul, according to Hashem Hatem, director of foreign economic relations at the Ministry of Trade. Authorities may take “tougher steps,” including cutting trade links with Turkey, he said. Total bilateral trade amounts to about $11 billion a year, he noted.
Meanwhile the Iraqi Foreign Ministry said it has asked permanent members of the UN Security Council and “friendly nations” to seek support for a resolution to condemn Turkey’s incursion, which it said violated Iraq’s sovereignty. Turkey has arrogantly said that while it won’t send more troops to reportedly 'train' local forces, it has no plans to withdraw the troops already stationed in northern Iraq. The withdrawal of Turkish troops from Iraq is out of question, Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said
“Our servicemen went to Iraq as instructors, their mission is limited to training,” Erdogan claimed during a news conference in the Turkish capital, Ankara. “It is out of the question, at present, that Turkey will pull out its military from Iraq,” he stressed.
Erdogan however announced a trilateral meeting between Turkey, Northern Iraq Kurdish leaders and US officials scheduled to take place on December 21.
Last week, Turkey deployed about 150 troops and 25 tanks to a base in Iraq’s Nineveh province, without bothering to get permission from Baghdad. Ankara claimed that its troops were sent to northern Iraq after a threat from ISIS terrorist group to Turkish military instructors training anti-terrorist forces in the area.
Baghdad condemned the move saying it had not asked for the help of Turkish forces and did not authorize the new deployment, calling it a violation of the country’s sovereignty.
Turkish troops incursion into Iraq comes as the Ankara regime faces economic sanctions from Russia after Turkish warplanes downed a Russian fighter jet inside Syria last month.
Iraq has also asked the Arab League to hold an extraordinary meeting of Arab foreign ministers to consider “the escalation of the Turkish violation and adopt an Arab attitude against it," Ahmed Jamal, a spokesman for the foreign ministry, said in a statement.