Iraqi PM Wants Turkey to Pull Out Troops
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Iraq's prime minister is appealing to Turkey to pull its troops out of Iraqi territory and help better fight the ISIL group, as both grapple with ways to thwart the extremist group that he insists is losing ground.
Haider al-Abadi spoke to the Associated Press after participating in a World Economic Forum panel in Davos, Switzerland about efforts to stabilize the Middle East, as security and defense issues took center stage at the four-day event.
"We in Iraq want very good neighborly relations with Turkey, we hope Turkey will help us fight Daesh," Abadi said, using another name for the radical Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.
"Daesh is killing our own citizens, occupying our own cities. We have 4 million internal refugees because of that, and Turkey should help us with that. And I appeal to the Turkish government to help us, and withdraw their forces."
He said Ankara hasn't responded to his government's question about why Turkish troops are in Iraq, adding: "We have to have an answer."
Turkey has had troops near the ISIL-controlled city of Mosul in northern Iraq since 2014. The arrival of additional troops last month sparked an uproar, and Ankara subsequently halted new deployments.
Turkey has not been clear about the exact number of troops it has deployed in Iraq, but the issue was one of several that US Vice President Joe Biden, in Istanbul Friday, was expected to bring up in Saturday meetings with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.
