Australian special forces in Iraq held up over legal status

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said Wednesday that troops sent to Iraq remain idle in the United Arab Emirates as the Iraqi government is yet to provide the necessary legal guarantees for its forces. The 200 Australian special operations troops have been sent to “advise and assist” local security forces in the battle against the Islamic State group in Iraq, International Business Times reports.

Abbott, who has reportedly demanded the same legal protection for Australian troops as those available to U.S. troops in Iraq, said that he was confident that a deal would be reached in the next few days. Australia has also sent six F/A-18F Super Hornet jet fighters to participate in the airstrikes as part of the international coalition formed to fight the Islamic State group in northern Iraq.

"I made it crystal clear that our special forces are ready to go and there is an enormous amount of good that they can do inside Iraq. But we owe it to our special forces only to deploy them with the right legal protections," Abbott told reporters, according to Reuters.