LONDON, England-- Iraq's Foreign Minister Ibrahim Jaafari warned Thursday that his country will consider all the "options" available to solve the ongoing diplomatic crisis with Ankara over Turkey's military presence in Iraq.
Speaking to Rudaw in London, Jaffari said Iraq's sovereignty had been violated with the Turkish troop deployment to northern Iraq near Mosul.
Baghdad has called on Turkey to withdraw its troops from the area ahead of the upcoming Mosul offensive.
Ankara has said it will take part in the offensive to root out the ISIS militants in the city, but it has not disclosed how the Turkish military will participate in the operation itself that is highly likely to start before the end of this month.
"We will take all the options. And if diplomacy fails, we will take international and legal ways," Jaffari told Rudaw after meeting officials at the UK foreign office earlier.
"While our sovereignty is violated, our options are open, and no one can limit them," warned Jaffari who has also served as Iraq's prime minister in the past.
Iraqi and Kurdish representatives headed by Jaffari are in London to rally further support for the Mosul operation and the anticipated refugee crisis that is likely to be triggered when the offensive starts.
Several European countries including Britain, France and Germany have said they will support Iraq and the Kurdistan Region in case of new mass migration of refugees from the war zones in Nineveh Plains where Mosul is the provincial capital.
It is still unclear how the Kurdish Peshmerga forces will support the Mosul offensive, but Erbil has said it will take part in the operation in "full coordination" with local and Iraqi forces.
"The Peshmerga is a military Iraqi force in the Kurdistan Region. It is also part of Iraq's armed forces and for all the Iraqis," Jaffari said.
The local forces in Nineveh Plains have largely been recruited by the Hashd al-Watani, a Sunni umbrella para-military group that is partly funded and trained by neighboring Turkey. Hashd al-Watani changed its name to the Nineveh Guards this week.
Both Hashd al-Watani and the Peshmerga are likely to be the key troops in the Mosul operation given their local ties and knowledge about the city and its population makeup.
Mosul is predominantly an Arab Sunni city but has a large Kurdish population of around 500,000, largely loyal to Kurdish factions in the Kurdistan Region.
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said last week that Ankara will take part in the offensive "for the sake of humanity."
The British ambassador to Baghdad, Frank Baker, who also attended the meeting in London told Rudaw his country is preparing with the Iraqi government and the Kurdistan Region for the Mosul operation and hoped that the ongoing disputes would be solved through "dialogue."
