February 2, 2024
Iraq’s prime minister has said multiple times in recent weeks that he wants to negotiate the departure of all US troops from Iraq but it seems he doesn’t really mean it and is just trying to string out Iraqi legislators demanding that the Americans leave.
The Washington daily Politico reported January 9 that Iraq’s prime minister privately told American officials he wants to negotiate keeping US forces in the country despite his recent announcements that he would begin the process of removing them.
Senior advisers to Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia as-Sudani told US officials that his declaration was “an attempt to satisfy domestic political audiences” and that Sudani himself “remained committed” to negotiating the coalition’s future presence in Iraq, according to a January 6 State Department cable that Politico said had been leaked to it.
There’s been a public uproar in Iraq over US drone strikes on Iraqi militias that are backed by Iran, including one that killed a senior militia officer. Sudani has said those attacks violate “Iraqi sovereignty.” The US says those attacks are responses to attacks on US bases by the Iraqi militias and are part of the natural right of self-defense.
Sudani’s office announced January 5 that his government is putting together a committee to end the presence of the US-led international military coalition, which was set up to prevent a resurgence of the Islamic State. Many military analysts do not believe the Iraqi military can keep the Islamic State, also known as Daesh, at bay without US help.
On January 15, Iran fired missiles at Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan. Since then, Iraqi Shiite officials have been more critical of Iran than of the United States for violating Iraqi “sovereignty.” (See story on Page One.)
Iraq’s willingness to keep US troops in the country is critical for the Biden Administration. The US sees its presence in Iraq as important not only for preventing a resurgence of the Islamic State but also for countering Iranian influence in the region.
The Pentagon has said it has no plans to withdraw forces from Iraq. “We’re there at the invitation of the government of Iraq,” Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon spokesperson, told reporters January 8. “I’m not aware of any notifications by the Iraqi government to the Department of Defense.”
This is not the first time the Iraqi government has publicly talked about kicking out American troops. In January 2020, in response to the US military’s killing of Iranian Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleymani, the Iraqi parliament voted for a resolution urging an end to the US military presence. However, this was not mandatory and as Sudani’s predecessor just ignored it.
Sudani was elected prime minister by parliament with the endorsement of Iran. His obvious reluctance to boot out the Americans suggests he is far from an Iranian lackey, however. It also suggests that many of the parliamentarians who talk about booting the Americans out do so just to assuage the Iranians and don’t really want the Americans to leave the country and make Iraq more dependent on Tehran.
At the end of 2021, Iraq and the US announced a plan to shift to a purely advisory role, marking the official end of the US military’s combat mission in the country.
The US still has roughly 2,500 troops in Iraq, along with 900 in Syria. The troops in Syria would not be able to stay there without the support of the US troops in Iraq.