No Turkish troops deployed into Iraqi country, there is no agreement about that
“The whole region is concerned about the security and stability in the Middle East,” Stated by the Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein “which is intertwined, any tension will affect all the countries,”
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) – According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the Iraqi Federal Government, the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Fuad Hussein chaired a meeting about the Higher Security committee, on Sunday, August 11, 2024.
In that meeting, Minister of Defense, Thabet al-Abbasi, National Security Advisor Qasim al-Araji, Minister of Interior of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Rebar Ahmed, and the Head of the Intelligence Service attended.
Following up, Hussein confirmed in an interview with an Iraqi TV channel on August 11th, p.m. (Baghdad’s local time) “No Turkish troops will be deployed into Iraqi country, nor there is an agreement about that.”
In 1980s, during Ba'ath regime, Tariq Aziz was the Iraqi Foreign Minister at the time. With the Turkish Foreign Minister, they signed off a draft agreement.
The draft agreement conferred a military operation for about five kilometers within the Iraqi territory for 72 hours, depending on the agreement which had such military activity dated back to that time, but not afterwards.
Hussein highlighted, during questions he was asked, regarding the Israel and Hamas war, tension and retaliation war, after becoming more extensive, “the whole region is concerned about the security and stability in the Middle East,” Stated by the Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein “which is intertwined, any tension will affect all the countries,”
As it is understood from his speech “Baghdad and Ankara didn’t reach any agreement about Turkish troops’ entry into Iraq. He reaffirmed "What exists is only a memorandum of understanding, not an agreement, and that one dated back to the early 1980s,”
He further explained "what had been done was only for one year and there was no extension, so there is no agreement between Iraq and Turkey, but now what Turkey demands, is to prevent any armed group’s activities of the PKK in the area, and PKK is a party in Turkey, but on the border areas”
There is a risk of war, that was pointed out by the Iraqi Foreign Minister, who expressed his concerns of the potential war in the region. He believed the situation is dangerous.
“What is related to the war in Gaza, where the killing of women and children and forcing civilians to leave, triggered, in general, the whole atmosphere" he further stated. "Before the Gaza war, there were Iranian conflicts with the United States on one side and Israel or Hezbollah and Israeli conflicts in southern Lebanon on another.”
There are different conflicts in the region, which are divided into regional and international war grounds.
"Definitely, the escalation of tensions between Iran and the United States will have a direct impact on the situation in Iraq. The effect will be either geographical or social, beside that depending on the situation in the whole zone, the security and stability are interrelated, any complications occur in a country in the Middle East, will affect another one in the Middle East” Reaffirmed by the Minster in another part of Asked Questions in the interview.
In another inquiry regarding Hamas’ existence in Iraq, he specifically highlighted "there is no official decision to open Hamas’ headquarter in Iraq or for Iraq to host Hamas leaders because Iraq does not accept to become a field for resolving regional conflicts."