Morning Star.png Iraq: UN Urged To Order Turkish Pull-Out The Morning Star, London, 12 December 2015 Iraq took its dispute over the Turkish troop presence in the oil-rich Mosul region to the United Nations Security Council yesterday. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi asked the Security Council to "shoulder its responsibilities" and order the withdrawal of the Turkish troops stationed at a military base near Mosul in the north of Iraq. A small Turkish force had been training local police and Kurdish militias - rivals to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) upon which Turkey has declared war - for the war against Islamic State (Isis). But Ankara deployed more than a thousand troops last week with tanks and heavy artillery to the base, prompting fierce protests from Baghdad. "This is a flagrant violation of the provisions and principles of the UN Charter and in violation of the sanctity of Iraqi territory," a statement from Mr Abadi's office said. The prime minister's condemnation was echoed by Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. Speaking in the city of Karbala, Ayatollah Sistani said Turkey should not have sent "troops to the territory of another state under the pretext of supporting the fight against terrorism" and called on the government to "protect the sovereignty of Iraq." Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reiterated that his government had no plans to withdraw troops but would continue with the training process "in agreement" with Iraq. Ankara has been accused of coveting a swathe of northern Syria and Iraq from Aleppo to Mosul and of assisting terrorist forces, including Isis and ethnic Turkmen militias. From: <http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-1e54-Iraq-UN-urged-to-order-Turkish-pu ll-out#.Vmur0Ep9600> http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-1e54-Iraq-UN-urged-to-order-Turkish-pul l-out#.Vmur0Ep9600 -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
