United Nations Security Council

Burundi's government said on Dec. 20 it would not agree to the deployment of African Union (AU) peacekeepers, warning that they would be seen as "an invasion force."

The announcement came a day after the 54-member bloc said it would send a 5,000-strong forced to halt spiraling violence in the tiny central African country as fears grow it is rapidly sliding towards civil war. 

The United Nations Security Council on Dec. 18 unanimously approved a resolution endorsing an international road map for a Syria peace process, a rare show of unity among major powers on a conflict that has claimed more than a quarter million lives. 

Turkey accused Iraq on Dec. 18 of undermining the global fight against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) by taking its complaint about the deployment of Turkish troops in northern Iraq to the United Nations Security Council. 

The United Nations Security Council is scheduled to meet on Dec. 18 to discuss a complaint by Iraq over Turkish troops deployed to a camp near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. 

Turkey's main nationalist leader has stood behind the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government in a diplomatic row with Baghdad over the deployment of Turkish troops in a northern Iraqi camp after Baghdad took umbrage with the move.

Sevil Erku?sevil.erkus@hurriyet.com.trA number of Turkish troops stationed at Bashiqa Camp near Mosul on Dec. 14 were transferred to a region under the control of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq, Turkish sources told Hürriyet Daily News.

Sevil Erku?sevil.erkus@hurriyet.com.trA number of Turkish troops stationed at Bashiqa Camp near Mosul on Dec. 14 were transferred to a region under the control of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq, Turkish sources told Hürriyet Daily News.

Iraq appealed to the United Nations Security Council on Dec. 11 to demand an immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all Turkish troops from northern Iraq, calling Turkey's military incursion a "flagrant violation" of international law. 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has spoken by phone with his Iraqi counterpart Ibrahim al-Jaafari to discuss the "unlawful incursion" of Turkish troops in northern Iraq, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Dec. 12.

"The Russian side expressed its firm position in support of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Iraq," the ministry said in a statement. 

The Justice and Development Party's (AKP) penchant for creating a crisis in Turkey's international relations is on parade again. The deployment of a contingent of special forces and 25 tanks in the town of Bashiqa, near Mosul in Iraq, is the latest case in point.