Ankara, Dec 9: Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told his Iraqi counterpart Ibrahim al-Jaafari during a phone call that Turkey’s presence in northern Iraq was aimed at contributing to Iraq’s fight against the self-declared “Islamic State” (IS).
Foreign ministry spokesman Tanju Bilgic told reporters that Cavusoglu respected Iraq’s territorial integrity, which according to Reuters was reiterated in the call between the two foreign ministers. Turkey has halted the deployment of troops to the area for the time being but said it would not withdraw troops already there.
Baghdad had asked for the withdrawal of Turkish troops deployed near the city of Mosul, which is currently held by IS.
