Tuesday, January 7, 2020

Is Iraq Changing Its Mind On Expelling U.S. Forces?

Adel Abdul Mahdi meets the US ambassador to Iraq, Matthew Tueller, in Baghdad, Iraq. Photograph: Reuters

The Guardian: Iraq scales down threats to expel US forces after Trump reaction

Acting PM Adel Abdul Mahdi emphasises dangers of descent into open war

Officials in Iraq have stepped back from threats to expel US forces after Donald Trump threatened to impose sanctions over the Iraqi parliament’s vote for a retaliation for the killing of the Iranian general Qassem Suleimani in Baghdad by a US drone strike.

The military spokesman for the acting Iraqi prime minister, Adel Abdul Mahdi, who met with the US ambassador on Monday to implement the decision, said any withdrawal would only involve combat forces and not training and logistical support for the Iraqi military, which have been core components of the US presence in Iraq in recent years.

Read more ....

Update #1: Iraq and U.S. should work together on troop withdrawal: Iraqi PM -- Reuters
Update #2: Iraqi PM spoke with Germany's Merkel about foreign troop withdrawal: statement -- Reuters

WNU Editor: The Iraqi government is in chaos right now. What can one say when the Iraqi parliament passes a nonbinding resolution calling on the government to end the presence of foreign troop presence in Iraq ....but is was boycotted by all the Kurdish and Sunni parliamentarians. And on top of that, the caretaker prime minister who supported this resolution isn’t even legally authorized to sign the bill into law. A resolution that (by the way) has no timetable attached to it.

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