Turkey should pull out forces from Iraq: Russia

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has denounced the presence of Turkish soldiers on Iraqi soil as “unacceptable,” calling on Ankara to pull out from the Arab country.

“We demand that Turkey withdraw its troops from the Iraqi territory where they are located to strengthen the sovereignty of Iraq,” Russia’s RIA news agency quoted Lavrov as saying on Tuesday.

Last December, Turkey deployed some 150 soldiers, equipped with heavy weapons and backed by 20 to 25 tanks, to the outskirts of Mosul, the capital of Iraq’s northern Nineveh Province.

Ankara claimed the deployment was part of a mission to train and equip Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga forces in the fight against Daesh terrorists, but Baghdad denounced the unauthorized move as a violation of Iraq’s national sovereignty.

“This (keeping the troops in Iraq) is an absolutely unacceptable position,” Lavrov said, adding, “In principle, I believe that what the Turks are doing deserves far greater public attention on the part of our Western partners.”

The top Russian diplomat said Moscow is assisting Iraq in combating terrorism by providing arms to both Baghdad and the Kurdish fighters in the country.

Earlier, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had called on Russia to pull out its forces from Syria, where the Russian military is conducting a Damascus government-sanctioned aerial campaign against terrorist groups.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Lavrov said the postponement of the start of air raids on the terrorist groups that have not joined a ceasefire in Syria will expire this week.

SS