Above photo: US DoD.
Washington has repeatedly refused to withdraw its forces from Iraq.
Despite a January 2020 parliamentary vote that called for the expulsion of all foreign occupation troops.
The governments of Iraq and the US have agreed on a timetable for the withdrawal of US and “international coalition” troops from the war-ravaged country, according to informed sources who spoke with Reuters.
“The plan, which has been broadly agreed but requires a final go-ahead from both capitals and an announcement date, would see hundreds of troops leave by September 2025, with the remainder departing by the end of 2026,” the British news outlet reports.
The plan would see all troops from the US-led coalition leave Iraq’s Ain al-Asad airbase in western Anbar province and “significantly reduce their presence in Baghdad by September 2025.”
US troops would remain in Erbil, the capital of the semi-autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan Region (IKR), for an additional year “to facilitate ongoing operations against Islamic State in Syria.”
“We have an agreement; it’s now just a question of when to announce it,” Reuters quotes a senior US official. Other sources claimed that the deal “could be announced this month.”
“We are now on the brink of transitioning the relationship between Iraq and members of the international coalition to a new level, focusing on bilateral relations in military, security, economic, and cultural areas,” Farhad Alaaldin, foreign affairs adviser to Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, said when asked about the state of discussions for the withdrawal of US troops.
The “end of 2026” deadline reportedly established by Baghdad and Washington will come nearly seven years after the Iraqi parliament voted to expel all US troops from Iraqi soil.
Baghdad restarted troop withdrawal talks with the US in January, but Washington repeatedly delayed announcing a timetable for their exit. Pentagon officials have also often pointed to the revival of ISIS in US-controlled regions of Syria as the reason for their refusal to leave.
The US has used ISIS as a pretext for keeping troops in the oil-rich country for close to a decade. The US and its regional allies previously provided covert support for ISIS as the armed group took over large swathes of Iraq in 2014, including the country’s second-largest city, Mosul.
“The remnants of terrorism no longer pose a threat to the existence of the Iraqi state. Today, our people enjoy security and stability as a result of the sacrifices of our righteous martyrs,” Sudani told US officials earlier this month.
The news of a two-year timetable for the exit of US troops from Iraq comes as Washington has significantly reinforced its occupation bases in neighboring Syria as it braces for renewed operations by the Axis of Resistance in support of Palestinians in Gaza.
Washington has also reinforced its presence in Iraq, including in oil-rich Kirkuk, and recently suspended withdrawal negotiations with Baghdad over the ongoing possibility of a regional war.