(MENAFN) On Wednesday, Iraq's foreign minister, Ibrahim Al-Jaafari said that his country would not allow the presence of Turkish troops on Iraqi soil, contrary to previous statements by officials from both countries which alluded to a future joint Iraqi-Turkish campaign against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), Kurdistan24 reported.
"While we are keen on the depth of Iraqi-Turkish relations, we categorically reject the Turkish forces' breach of the Iraqi border and reiterate our insistence on the withdrawal of Turkish forces from the city of Bashiqa," Al-Jaafari told reporters, while attending a meeting with Turkish Deputy Foreign Minister Ahmed Yildiz.
In 2015, Turkey established a base in the norhtern Iraqi town of Bashiqa, where they trained Sunni Muslim and Kurdish Peshmerga units in preparations for the battle to liberate the nearby city of Mosul from the Islamic State (IS).
At the beginning of the offensive in Oct. 2016, Turkey declared it would keep troops in Iraq until IS was expelled from Mosul, despite calls from other nations to withdraw their forces.
Said al-Jaafari, "Iraq will not allow the presence of any troops on its territory conducting military operations in any of the neighboring countries," he continued, stressing that the strategy of Iraqi relations "is based on promoting common interests, facing common dangers, maintaining sovereignty and non-interference in the internal affairs of states."
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