Iraq’s Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi on Friday addressed the nation and called for Turkish troops to withdraw from the country. The Iraqi leader said that foreign troops were not needed to fight Islamic State militants in the country, and said it had given Turkey time to remove their troops. Turkey has had soldiers in Iraq since last year, but the arrival of more troops last week was not received well by Baghdad. AP reported that Turkey has since stopped the deployment of more troops, but has not removed its forces from Iraq yet.

On Friday, al-Abadi’s foreign ministry sent a letter to the United Nations on the matter, and asked the United Nations Security Council to “shoulder its responsibilities” and order the troops to leave. UNSC President, the United States’ Samantha Power, said that the Iraqi government was alarmed and that any further troop deployment must have the government’s permission.

Despite this, Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey does not plan to withdraw its troops from Iraq and that they would continue their “training process” as agreed with Iraq. Erdogan added that Baghdad could not protect Turkish troops in Iraq and that militants were “running wild” in the country.