The United States and Iraq are nearing an agreement to withdraw the Washington-led international coalition troops from Iraq, according to a report by the Emirati newspaper The National.
Jawad al-Bulani, a member of the Iraqi delegation at the talks in Washington, indicated that the discussions are in their final stages. "Both sides have the impression that the mission of these troops is coming to an end," he told the newspaper.
Sources close to the Iraqi government reveal that Baghdad and Washington have agreed to initiate a partial withdrawal of US troops stationed in Iraq. While some international and American forces will remain under new security agreements, their roles may shift to training Iraqi security forces.
However, the presence of coalition troops at the al-Harir airbase in the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan remains a contentious issue. The US argues that their presence is essential for coordinating operations against the Islamic State (IS) in Syria, while Iraqi authorities contend they did not agree to this arrangement when the coalition was initially deployed in 2014.
On January 5, 2020, the Iraqi parliament passed a resolution demanding the complete withdrawal of all foreign forces from the country. As of March 2021, the number of US troops in Iraq was reported to be around 2,500. By December 22, 2021, the General Staff of the Iraqi Armed Forces announced the completion of the coalition's troop withdrawal, with a remaining presence of military advisers.
In February, Yahya Rasul, spokesman for the Commander-in-Chief of the Iraqi Armed Forces, called the coalition forces a destabilizing factor, stressing the need for Baghdad to seriously consider ending the coalition's mission in Iraq. According to a Reuters report on July 23, the Iraqi authorities aim to achieve the complete withdrawal of coalition troops by September 2025.
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Based on materials from TASS