Russia To Bring Conflicts With Turkey Before UN Security Council

Russia has asked the United Nations Security Council to hold closed-door discussions on Turkish military actions in Syria and Iraq, diplomats say.

The United States, president of the Security Council this month, will chair the discussions on December 8.

Diplomats expect a November 24 incident in which Turkey shot down a Russian plane near the Syrian border to come up. Relations between Russia and Turkey have plummeted since that incident.

Ankara has said the Russian plane violated Turkish airspace. Moscow says the aircraft was over Syria, where Russia is carrying out an air campaign to support government forces in a five-year-old civil war.

Separately, Iraq has accused Turkey of violating its sovereignty by deploying troops and tanks to a camp 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 Iraqi complaints.

Turkey said on December 7 it would not withdraw the troops, which it says are part of a mission to train Iraqi forces to fight Islamic State militants.

Based on reporting by Reuters and AP