TEHRAN – The Iranian Foreign Ministry on Sunday criticized the Turkish government for deploying military forces in Iraq, calling it a “wrong act”.

Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said that such actions run contrary to establishment of the security in the Middle East region.

“The countries’ help in fighting terrorism requires coordination with the Iraqi government and obtaining permission from the country’s legal government,” he said.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has said the troops were there as part of an ongoing training mission at the request of Mosul’s governor and in coordination with Iraq’s Defense Ministry.

“No one should arrive at wrong conclusions from our support. Turkey is not after any country’s soil,” Davutoglu said, according to Al-Jazeera.

Amir-Abdollahian said, “We believe that such behavior not only will not help suppress terrorism, but it will also lead to chaos and insecurity in the region.”

There is no doubt that all regional countries will gain benefit from a coordinated fight against terrorism, the high ranking Iranian Foreign Ministry official noted.

On Sunday the Iraqi Foreign Ministry summoned the Turkish ambassador to Baghdad to protest at the deployment of Turkish forces near the northern city of Mosul and demand their immediate withdrawal.

The ministry said in a statement on Saturday that the Turkish forces had entered Iraqi territory without the knowledge of the central government in Baghdad, and that Iraq considered such presence “a hostile act”.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi had said earlier that no permission had been given for the stationing of “around one armed battalion” of Turkish soldiers in the northern Nineveh area near Mosul, which is under the control of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.

NA/PA