“We do not want to enter into a military confrontation with Turkey,” the Iraqi prime minister said, arguing that “the behavior of the Turkish leadership is not acceptable by any standard.”
He further described the liberation of Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city and the main Daesh stronghold in the country, as imminent, stressing that Baghdad has drawn up plans to “ensure Turkish troops will not exploit the power vacuum after victory over Daesh in Mosul.”
In more Escalation of development on Wednesday, Diplomatic tensions between Iraq and Turkey intensidied today as a spokesman for the Iraqi Foreign Ministry announced that Ankara’s ambassador to Baghdad had been summoned to explain recent statements made by his country.
Ahmed Jamal, Iraq’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, said that the Turkish ambassador had been summoned due to “provocative Turkish statements regarding the [upcoming] battle for Mosul,”.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry also summoned Iraq’s Ambassador to Ankara Hisham Ali Akbar Ibrahim Alawi in a tit-for-tat move, voicing Ankara’s protest over the Iraqi parliament’s rejection of a one-year extension of the mandate for Turkish forces in Iraq.
Meanwhile, angered by the position of the central Iraqi government, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus hit back and said nobody is allowed to oppose his country’s military presence at the Bashiqa camp in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.
He claimed that Ankara’s military role is meant to bring about stability and that his country does not seek to become an occupying force.
Meanwhile, Iraq’s Defence Ministry said that the Pentagon’s spokesman for the US-led coalition against Daesh, Colonel John Dorrian, had said that Turkish forces in northern Iraq are not a part of coalition forces,Middle East Eyes reported.
The presence of Turkish soldiers at Bashiqa comes at the request of the local Kurdish government there, added Kurtulmus, stressing that “Turkey will not allow this to become a matter of debate.”
For months, Iraq has been preparing for the assault on Daesh in Mosul, which slipped into the hands of the terrorists in 2014.
The operation for Mosul is highly significant as estimates say about half of the city’s pre-war population of two million still remains there.
Daesh, based on intelligence information, has reportedly between 4,000 and 5,000 terrorists in the city, making the situation more complicated.The terror group claimed 7,000 figher are readt to "defend Mosul".
The Iraqi prime minister had earlier said that all troops participating in the Mosul offensive are from Iraq and no foreigners would be among them.
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