Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu met UN envoy for Iraq Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaer on Monday.
POLITICAL ISSUES HAVE BEEN DISCUSSED
Çavuşoğlu and Hennis-Plasschaer, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq, discussed the issues of reconstruction in Iraq and the pending issues in Kirkuk.
In a tweet, Çavuşoğlu said: “Discussed w/@JeanineHennis, @UNIraq Special Representative, reconstruction of #Iraq &stressed support in pending issues, especially in Kirkuk.”
More than 5 million Iraqis were forced to flee districts in the provinces of Nineveh, Kirkuk, Saladin, Anbar, Diyala, as well as parts of Babil and the outskirts of Baghdad after self-proclaimed Daesh terrorists reportedly overran much of northern and western Iraq in 2014.
US SANCTION THREATS OVER S-400 PURCHASE
Turkey’s foreign minister on Monday defied the US sanction threats over Ankara’s purchase of S-400 missile defense systems from Russia.
“No matter what sanctions decision, no matter which statement comes from the US, we have already bought the S-400,” Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said following a bilateral meeting with his Rwandan counterpart. “Now we are talking about when the S-400 will be delivered to Turkey. It is not possible for us to give up on the purchase of the S-400,” he added.
On recent US steps to take Turkey out of the F-35 fighter jet program claiming that the two are incompatible he said other partners in the F-35 program do not support these steps.
“All decisions should be taken by consensus,” Çavuşoğlu said, reiterating that Turkey is also a partner to the program and has made large contributions. “These kinds of steps taken by the US are not compatible with the partnership agreement or the law,” he said, adding that Washington failed to agree with any of Turkey’s proposals to resolve the issue.