Parliament committee: military response to Turkish intervention in Nineveh possible
Parliament member and civil rights activist Mowaffak al-Rubaie.
“The Iraqi Council of Representatives had issued during its recent sessions a decree designed to protect the borders of Mosul on the basis of post-Islamic State occupation period, and to prevent foreign intervention,” said Mowaffak al-Rubaie,a senior member of the Security and Defense Committee. “If all diplomatic means to deter Turkey are consumed, the Iraqi government will intervene militarily to deter Ankara’s encroachments upon the country’s sovereignty,” he stated in press statements.
Turkey has been maintaining troops at the province of Nineveh, the stage of ferocious battles between Islamic State militants and Iraqi joint forces seeking to liberate the city. While Turkey says its troops are only there to train locals to fight ISIS, the Iraqi government has demanded to withdraw the troops in respect for its sovereignty, which sparked a political dispute between both governments.
Ankara is preparing for a conference next week tackling efforts to rescue Nineveh’s city of Mosul. Attending the conference are personalities wanted by the Iraqi judiciary for terrorism charges, including former vice president tarek al-Hashimi, former mufti Rafea al-Refaie and other opposition figures and Muslim Brotherhood members.
“Turkey’s sponsorship of the Mosul rescue conference without the knowledge or the permission of the Iraqi government is playing with fire,” said Rubaie.