Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday said it was out of the question that Turkish troops would withdraw from Iraq after Baghdad accused Ankara of deploying soldiers there without permission.
Speaking at a press conference, Erdogan said that the troops were there for training Kurdish peshmerga fighters and not combat purposes.
He also said there would be a trilateral meeting between Turkey, the United States and Kurdish northern Iraqi authorities on Dec. 21 but made no mention of a possible meeting with Baghdad.