Washington Denies Its Top Envoy Discussed Withdrawal of Troops with Iraqi PM

By Staff, Agencies

Iraqi PM Mustafa al-Kadhimi’s office said he and the top White House envoy for the Middle East discussed the withdrawal of combat troops from the country. However, a senior Biden administration official denied it ever happened.

A statement referring to a pullout of American troops from Iraq was released by al-Kadhimi’s office after he met with Brett McGurk, the White House special coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa.

“Discussions took place about mechanisms for [US] combat troops’ withdrawal from Iraq, and moving forward to a new stage in strategic cooperation,” the Tuesday statement about the Baghdad meeting said.

A senior official in the US administration told Newsweek that “this was not true,” when asked for comment.

Some 3,500 foreign troops, including 2,500 American soldiers, are stationed on Iraqi soil. They are ostensibly on the ground to help the Iraqi government prevent a possible resurgence of Daesh [the Arabic acronym for terrorist ‘ISIS/ISIL’ group].

Last year, the US carried out the assassination on Iraqi soil of the Islamic Revolution Guard [IRG] top anti-terror commander, former Quds Force commander General Qassem Soleimani. In addition to L. Gen. Soleimani and his aides, the airstrike martyred five Iraqi nationals from the welcoming party, including Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy commander of Iraq’s state-backed Popular Mobilization Units [PMU].

The assassination outraged the Iraqi side, with the parliament subsequently voting to order a full withdrawal of foreign troops from their country, which the Trump administration ignored.

Under Biden, the two sides are engaged in talks about an eventual withdrawal of combat troops and Pentagon’s shift to “advisory role” in Iraq, but the US is apparently in no hurry to proceed.

PM al-Kadhimi is scheduled to visit Washington later this month for further discussions on the issue.