UN to tackle Turkey military action

The United Nations Security Council will hold discussions on Turkish military action in Syria and Iraq on Tuesday, upon the request of Russia, in the latest sign of increasing tensions between Moscow and Ankara. Russia's UN mission had no immediate comment. But council diplomats said they expected the incident in which Turkey shot down a Russian plane near the Syrian-Turkish border on November 24 would come up. Relations between Russia and Turkey have nose-dived since that incident. "We don't have details but Russia has asked to discuss the issue of Turkish action in Iraq and Syria," a diplomat told Reuters. Other council diplomats echoed his remarks. The discussion was expected to follow a closed-door meeting of the 15-nation council on unrelated issues beginning at 3 pm ET on Tuesday, the diplomats said. The United States, president of the Security Council this month, will chair the discussions. Turkish officials have said the Russian plane it shot down violated Turkish airspace and had been warned repeatedly. Moscow says the aircraft was over Syria, where Russia is carrying out an air campaign to support the forces of President Bashar al-Assad in a nearly 5-year-old civil war. Russia says it is targeting Islamic State (IS) militants, who have taken over large swaths of Syria and Iraq and made inroads in Libya and Yemen. Western officials say very few of Russia's airstrikes were aimed at IS, with most of them hitting Western-backed Syrian rebel groups. Turkey has discussed possible measures against Russia and will impose sanctions if needed, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Tuesday, but added that Ankara remains open to talks with Moscow. Separately, Iraq has accused Turkey of violating its sovereignty by deploying a heavily armed contingent of forces to a camp near the front line in northern Iraq last week. It threatened to refer the case to the Security Council unless Turkey withdraws its forces. It was not clear if Russia intended to raise the specific Iraqi complaints, nor was it clear if the Russian delegation wanted the council to take action. Turkey has halted the deployment of troops to northern Iraq for now but will not withdraw those already there, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Tuesday, after Baghdad demanded the withdrawal of soldiers sent to reiterating Ankara's respect for Iraq's territorial integrity.