Iraq’s new prime minister told The Wall Street Journal in an interview published on Sunday that he supports a continued US troop presence in Iraq, breaking the silence on the issue since he came into office in October 2022.
“We think that we need the foreign forces,” Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani said. The US currently has about 2,500 troops in Iraq, but the presence is a divisive issue in Iraqi politics as al-Sudani’s supporters and Iraqi Shia groups have pressed him to reconsider the stationing of US forces in the country.
American troops are in the country to train government forces against ISIS, but in recent years, the US has been at odds with Iraqi Shia militias that it once allied with to fight ISIS. Tensions came to a head in January 2020 when the US killed Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani and Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in a drone strike in Baghdad.
Al-Muhandis led the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), a group of mostly Shia militias formed in 2014 to fight ISIS. The drone strike enraged many in Iraq, and Iraq’s parliament voted to expel US forces shortly after, but the US refused to leave.
Former Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, who came into office in May 2020, was under a lot of pressure to get the US to leave the country. The pressure led to Kadhimi working out a deal that led to the US formally ending its “combat mission” in Iraq, changing it to an “advisory role.” But changing the name of the US mission in Iraq had virtually no impact on the US presence on the ground as no troops were withdrawn.
A major reason for the continued US presence in Iraq is that it supports the US occupation of eastern Syria, where there are about 1,000 American troops. The US backs the Kurdish-led SDF in Syria against ISIS, but the presence is also part of the economic war against Damascus, as the US has Syria under crippling economic sanctions with the purpose of preventing the country’s reconstruction.
Sudani recognized that the US presence in Iraq is necessary to support US forces in Syria. He said it was needed to prevent a resurgence of ISIS in Syria, although the Syrian government is a sworn enemy of ISIS and would work with its allies to keep the group from regaining a foothold in eastern Syria if the US withdrew.
Sudani was voted into office by Iraq’s parliament after a year-long political stand-off between influential Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and his opponents in parliament. Sadr’s party won the most seats in Iraq’s October 2021 elections but failed to form a government, and the tensions culminated in violent clashes in Baghdad that took place over the summer.
Unlike most factions in Iraq, Sadr wants the country to be independent of both the US and Iran and is against the US troop presence. Sudani is taking a different approach and told The Wall Street Journal that he hopes to have good relations with both the US and Iran. “I don’t see this as an impossible matter, to see Iraq have a good relationship with Iran and the US,” he said.
As long as the US remains in Iraq and Syria, it risks sparking a wider war with Iraqi Shia militias and possibly Iran. US bases in the two countries frequently come under rocket attack. While there have rarely been casualties in the recent attacks, the US has previously escalated the situation and launched major airstrikes in response, even though it’s impossible to know who was responsible.
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Iraq is a failed state, much like Libya and still occupied by US troops. The Americans are drilling oil in Syria and military force is necessary to protect the business. The US occupiers have ways to rob nations blind. Western values it is called if I am not mistaken, freedom and democracy for the people, right?
Sudani was convinced to recognize the need of US forces to remain in Iraq, we can be sure he got his marching orders. and paycheck.
In Syria, the Israelis annexed the Golan, the Americans are drilling the oil and imposed sanctions on Syria. That is enough to tell Sudani to do as told.
What happened to the UN? Such a useless institution, time to shut it down.
Hey look, the puppet regime we installed after overthrowing Saddam for nonexistent weapons for mass destruction wants us to stay there FOREVER. What a surprise. This regime was so weak that it fostered ISIS, which is now a plague on the world. Why on earth did we ever go to Iraq in the first place and why should we stay?
OIL
If the US , as it claims is in Syria to combat ISIS why then is it depriving Syria from exploiting its own oil fields, badly needed for its economy?
because syria’s oil actually belongs to uncle sam, just like all of the rest of the oil of the world
Also, the great, oh so Christian nation, the U.S. of A., is sanctioning Syria, which is killing innocents.
If I were an American soldier in Iraq or Syria I would keep the gas tank filled.
Why do I doubt this man’s sincerity? Was there a referendum? If I was an Iraqi, I would want to slit the throat of every American(US) I could get my hands on.
A bank robber was asked why he robbed banks. His response: that is where the money is. Well, ask those who attack American soldiers why, the response would be: because they are there. Get out. Get out. Get out.
Apparently it’s a standard across the Mid East, for leaders to be such cuckolds. With a few exceptions.
They want the Iranian presence out but ok with US presence. Iran don’t like that kind of hypocrisy.
“‘We think that we need the foreign forces,’ Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani said.” Can we make room to add a display of his head to Zelensky’s in the US Capitol? Vogue magazine to display him and his wife in a romantic “portrait of bravery?” I feel the dry-heaves starting… Barf, Ugh… (Sarcasm Alert)
The USA is a most brutal hegemon. Sanctions are economic warfare against the civilian population, the sanctions are to do the greatest harm to civilians including women and children.
What can be more brutal than making parents watch helplessly as their little baby or toddler die a slow death of starvation? The brutality irreversible brain damage malnourished children suffer.
Biden and all our officials in congress are guilty, all are killers, war criminals.
Good. We did something similar in 1776.