Iraq urged the United States this Wednesday to withdraw all its troops from the Arab country quickly and orderly.
This Wednesday, the office of the Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani issued a statement and urged the US troops stationed in the Arab country to make “a quick and orderly” withdrawal from Iraq.
Asserting that the presence of US troops in Iraq is “destabilizing,” Sudani’s office said in the statement that “There is a need to re-organize [our] relationship [with Washington] so that it is not a target or justification for any party, internal or foreign, to tamper with stability in Iraq and the region.” Sudani, however, did not set a deadline on how much time the American troops have to withdraw from Iraq.
A day earlier on Tuesday, the spokesperson for the Iraqi prime minister, Dhia al-Nasiri, echoed the same demand and noted that Iraq has informed the United States of the need to begin negotiations to secure a withdrawal of US forces from the Arab country.
The Iraqi government “informed the American side of the necessity of starting negotiations on a timetable for the withdrawal of international coalition forces from the country,” Nasiri said Tuesday night in an interview with the Arab World Press.
“A timetable is currently being formulated to reduce the number of coalition forces and foreign military advisors working in Iraq,” Nasiri noted, adding that “a higher military committee is scheduled to begin re-evaluating the country’s military and security situation, evaluating the capabilities of the Iraqi forces, and examining plans to enhance these capabilities.”
Washington has no plan to withdraw troops from Iraq!
Despite the assertive demand by the Iraqi government, the Pentagon said this Thursday that it’s not currently planning to withdraw its nearly 2,500 troops from Iraq.
“Right now, I’m not aware of any plans (to plan for withdrawal). We continue to remain very focused on the defeat ISIS mission,” Air Force Major General Patrick Ryder said during a news briefing on Thursday, surprisingly adding that US forces are in Iraq at the invitation of its government.
Despite Ryder’s claim, Sudani has been stressing during the past few months that his country will no longer accept foreign troops operating on its territory. Referring to this approach, Nasiri confirmed that the Iraqi government maintains coordination with Washington and the US army, but he emphasized the country’s adherence to Sudani’s previous assertions that Iraq does not need foreign combat forces in its soil.
Everything began on 3 January 2020!
The idea of an Iraq without American troops began back on January 3, 2020, the day when the US assassinated Iranian Quds Force commander Qassim Soleimani. Following the assassination, the Iraqi parliament voted in favor of expelling US troops from Iraq. The resolution specifically called for “the cancellation of Iraq’s formal request for US military assistance against ISIS,” which was issued in 2014.
The US, however, ignored the resolution and instead, threatened to impose heavy sanctions on Iraq. “We have a very extraordinarily expensive air base that’s there. It cost billions of dollars to build … We’re not leaving unless they pay us back for it … We will charge them sanctions like they’ve never seen before ever. It’ll make Iranian sanctions look somewhat tame,” said then-US president Donald Trump one day after the vote.
Since October 7, the Iraqi resistance forces have carried out several attacks against the US bases in Iraq and Syria in solidarity with the Palestinian resistance and also to quicken the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq. In return, the US has responded with several violent air strikes on Iraq and its capital, violating the country’s sovereignty.
