Relationship with US-led coalition to be determined in coming days: Iraqi PM
The Iraqi premier has reiterated that Baghdad does not require the presence of foreign combat troops on its soil
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani on 11 September announced that the Iraqi-US Joint Committee will meet for the first time in the coming days to "determine the form of the relationship with the international coalition."
The formation of the joint committee was approved last month by the Iraqi parliament following a visit to the US capital by Defense Minister Thabet al-Abbasi.
Furthermore, Sudani reiterated on Monday that Baghdad no longer needs the presence of foreign combat troops to maintain security.
"The Iraqi delegation clearly declared [in Washington] that Iraq today doesn't need combat troops, and this is a continuation to our stance in every event; we don't need combat troops in Iraq," he said.
However, Sudani stressed that his country was “not against any bilateral relations with the United States or any other country within the International Coalition to co-operate in the security field.”
Sudani also stressed that increased US troops movements in Iraq are “a process to replace the forces present in Syria,” adding that “there is no movement of foreign forces present in Iraq without the knowledge of the Iraqi government."
Sudani's statement comes less than a week after a senior official in the Iraqi military revealed that the US Army is storing offensive military weapons at Iraq's Ain al-Asad base, in breach of a 2021 agreement between Washington and Baghdad that saw the US Army officially end its combat role in the country and transition to an “advisory role.”
The official stressed that Baghdad sought to press the US on the issue, with special consideration given to US military movements in neighboring Syria.
US military troops first entered Iraq in 2003 to topple the government of Saddam Hussein under false pretenses. Washington initially withdrew its forces in 2011 when the White House failed to secure a new Status of Forces (SOFA) agreement with former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
However, US troops returned to the Ain al-Asad base under the pretext of training Iraqis to fight ISIS six months after the extremist group invaded and occupied Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, in June 2014.
On 18 December 2021, the Iraqi government announced that “no combat forces of the international coalition or NATO” remained inside Ain al-Assad base. However, 2,500 US troops remain in the country – many at the Ain al-Asad base – in a “training and advisory role.”
Their continued presence is part of an agreement reached between Washington and Baghdad in July 2021 that was meant to see the complete withdrawal of US troops – similar to their exit from Afghanistan.
Calls for Washington to end its military occupation of Iraq intensified in January 2020 after the Iraqi parliament voted on a law to withdraw permission for the US to operate on Iraqi soil in response to the assassination of Iranian anti-terror commander Qassem Soleimani and the deputy leader of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, outside Baghdad airport.