US special envoy for the ISIS conflict James Jeffrey denied on Thursday that there have been any talks between the United States and Iraq on withdrawing troops from Iraqi territory, saying there is “no real engagement.”
Jeffrey offered a unique position however, saying that the US “is prepared to discuss with the Iraqi government our overall strategic relationship.” He added that the troops were tied to economic and diplomatic relations under the 2008 Strategic Framework Agreement, and that all would be up for discussion.
This contrasts with President Trump’s threats of massive sanctions on Iraq for even asking the troops to leave, and suggesting as recently as yesterday that any troop level changes would be solely on America’s terms.
It may also be misleading to say that there has been no engagement, since Trump spoke with the Iraqi president on the matter on Wednesday, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has engaged with multiple Iraqi officials who have asked for a proper mechanism to deal with troop levels.
Since other US officials have suggested that there would be no withdrawal, they would clearly also prefer not to confirm that the request to leave has even been brought up. That said, while Iraqi PM Adel Abdul-Mahdi was cowed into backing off the call until after the next elections, the 170-0 vote in Iraq’s parliament is not easily dismissed.
Jeffrey is a lightweight zionist mouthpiece-when he speaks, nitenyaaaahoo’s lips are moving.
As long as there is no force behind Iraq`s demand, the US could`n care less.
The US does not abide to international laws, agreements, treaties and does not respect countries sovereignty.
When the Iraqi`s realize that peaceful, calm and diplomacy don`t work with the US, the PMU will take over and start the resistance against the US occupation.
Update:
President Donald Trump had better voluntarily order the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq before they are forced out, says a high-ranking official from the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), better known by the Arabic word Hashd al-Sha’abi.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/01/24/616982/US-troops-Trump-Iraq-PMU-
You’re absolutely right, Jim .. As long as there’s no force behind Iraq’s demand, the US couldn’t care less. It doesn’t abide to international laws, agreements and treaties, and doesn’t respect countries’ sovereignty.
When the Iraqis realize that peaceful calm and diplomacy don’t work with the US, the PMU will simply take over and start the resistance against the US occupation (It’s happened before; it can happen again).
Update: President DJT had better voluntarily order the withdrawal of ALL 5,000 US troops from Iraq before they’re forced out .. this coming from a high-ranking official from the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), better known by the Arab word Hashd al-Sha’abi.
Here is an article about what the US will try to do.
US seeks to divide Iraq in three in order to maintain troop presence
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/01/24/616996/iraq-us-troops
Not sure about others in the U.S., but i cannot access any Presstv links anymore. Not sure if it’s the government or corporations, but access to PressTV for quite some time has been prohibited.
Iran’s Fars News blocked after US gov’t order
https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/irans-fars-news-blocked-after-us-govt-order/
I can access the Presstv link from my comment. Copy/paste the link in google/safari.
I’m looking at Presstv right now, from the United States, in a normal web browser (Chrome) and without using proxies, etc. Their page doesn’t seem to be especially overloaded with scripts or anything that would make most computers choke. I wonder if our individual ISP might be blocking it for some reason?
Did you see the Davos meeting of “Pres of Iraq” pandering to Trump, and the result is a huge surge of resistance by Iraqis to his soft approach.
“US special envoy for the ISIS conflict James Jeffrey” LOL LOL
We are an occupation force in Iraq. Wherever we land we are gorilla glued to the place.
the Iraqi militias will see to it that the US high tails it out of there, within the next year or so…
I suspect some of this too will of course depend on the results of this year’s US presidential election