Mosul dominates Turkish FM's Saudi meeting

The situation in the Daesh-occupied Iraqi city of Mosul topped the agenda in a Thursday meeting between Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu and his Saudi counterpart Adel bin Ahmed al-Jubeir.

According to diplomatic sources who spoke after the closed encounter, Çavuşoğlu also informed the Saudi minister about measures taken against the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETÖ) after Turkey's defeated July 15 coup bid.

The presence of Turkish troops in Iraq was recently criticized by Baghdad. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım said Turkey's military presence in the Bashiqa camp in northern Iraq would continue despite the parliament in Baghdad branding Turkish forces as “occupiers" earlier this week.

Last December, Turkey sent some 150 troops and about two dozen combat tanks to Bashiqa, located some 12 kilometers (7.46 miles) northeast of Mosul.

Meanwhile, Çavuşoğlu held a phone meeting with the EU's foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, which was dominated by the Bashiqa issue and Syria.

Çavuşoğlu was then received by Saudi monarch, King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud.