Turkey will not withdraw its troops from Iraq now, says Turkish Foreign Minister
Turkish Foreign Minister Mouloud Chaooh Ihsanoglu
(IraqiNews.com) Baghdad – The Turkish Foreign Minister Mouloud Chaooh Ihsanoglu stressed on Tuesday, that his country will not withdraw its troops from Iraq now.
The spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, Tango Balijaj, said in a statement quoted by Reuters: “The Foreign Minister Mouloud Chaooh Ihsanoglu told his Iraqi counterpart Ibrahim al-Jaafari in a telephone call that Turkey stopped sending troops to northern Iraq at the present time, but it will not pull out of the soldiers, who are already there”.
Balijaj added that “Chaooh Ihsanoglu reiterated Ankara’s respect for the unity of the Iraqi territory in the call, which was made on Monday evening.”
Noteworthy, Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari announced on Monday (7 December 2015) that Iraq will “escalate the situation,” against the Turkish government in the event of the end of the 48-hours deadline given by the Iraqi government for the withdrawal of Turkish troops from the outskirts of Mosul.