Will American troops in Iraq leave this country?

According to the international group Tasnim news agency, the news published about the situation of American military forces in Iraq and The possibility of their departure from this country, although it is considered promising news for stability in the region, but looking at the official positions issued by Baghdad and Washington, it seems that we are facing an event called “the departure of these forces” rather than We are facing an issue called “negotiations to change the status of these forces”.

In recent days, according to American media sources, news has been published about the withdrawal of American military forces from Iraq, and as a result Both sides adopted official positions. In this context, it should be said that the history of trying to withdraw these forces does not go back to the present time, but since 2008 and during the government of former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, an agreement was reached on this issue and it was implemented in 2011.

However, in 2014 and at the request of the then Iraqi government, these forces returned to Iraq in the name of fighting ISIS, and in 2020, after the assassination of the martyrs “Lieutenant General Soleimani and Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis”, the Iraqi parliament demanded the expulsion of these forces, and in the year 2021 and during the government of “Mustafa Al-Kazemi” there was an agreement regarding “the end of the combat mission of these forces” and the withdrawal of a part of them and the survival of another part for advisory affairs. Now it can be expected that if the current negotiations come to a conclusion, the advisory forces must be withdrawn, otherwise we will simply witness the repetition of the Al-Kazemi government’s experience.

Examination of the official positions of the two sides

In this context, we have seen two official positions so far: one is the position of the Pentagon and the other is the position of the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In this regard, the spokesperson of the Pentagon announced: The meeting of the High Military Committee between the United States and Iraq is not a negotiation about the withdrawal of American forces from Iraq, and these forces are present at the request of the Iraqi government, and our Iraqi partners are committed to joint cooperation to create a future for the military presence. The United States emphasized to achieve the permanent defeat of ISIS.

On the other hand, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry said in a part of its statement: The Iraqi government, in agreement with the American government, needs to start the work of the High Military Committee at the level of cooperation working groups. In order to assess the threat of ISIS and strengthen the capabilities of the Iraqi security forces, and to create a clear timetable, it announces the duration of the presence of the international coalition advisers in Iraq, and their presence is gradually and calculatedly reduced and the military mission of the coalition ends.

Considering the statement of both sides, we can understand that at least at the official level, there is no talk of a practical reduction of these forces or their total withdrawal, but what is – in the best conditions and focusing on the statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iraq and waiver From the Pentagon’s official position, there are negotiations to reduce military forces, which are now called advisory forces, and the duration of these negotiations – which are in the form of a high committee – is not known.

Positions of political groups

In general, most of the positions issued by Shia and Sunni forces. In this regard, among the Shiite groups, the “Shia Coordination Framework” welcomed the incident that started the aforementioned negotiations and announced: The coordination framework is the efforts made by the national forces, headed by the government, in order to start negotiations with the coalition. Among the Sunni groups, “Mohammed Al-Halbusi”, the leader of the Tahad coalition, tweeted on the “X” social network about the government’s steps to “continue talks with the international coalition and agree with the United States in This field” supported. Moreover, the “Al-Hasm al-Watani Coalition” led by “Thabet Al-Abasi”, the Minister of Defense in the current government, supported the government’s steps to “maintain continuous relations with the international coalition in general and the United States in particular”.

The head of the Kurdistan region of Iraq welcomed the agreement of the central government of Iraq with the United States regarding the resumption of the joint high committee between the two countries regarding negotiations for the withdrawal of the international coalition forces from Iraq.

Nachirvan Barzani in a statement announced: We welcome the agreement between the federal government of Iraq and the United States government to resume the work of the High Military Committee (HMC) and advance discussions on bilateral relations and the future of joint cooperation in the political, economic, cultural, security and military fields. /p>

This statement states that the Kurdistan Region of Iraq supports this agreement and cooperates and helps in protecting the security, stability and sovereignty of Iraq and strengthening relations based on mutual respect and common interests.

Concluding Remarks

As stated, the developments have occurred in the sense of the current reduction or practical withdrawal of the occupying forces from Iraq. It is not, but it is the beginning of negotiations about one of these two issues. However, it should be noted that due to the presence of Iraq in the regional and international equations of the axis of resistance, including the war against Gaza through attacks on American barracks or Zionist positions in the occupied areas, it seems that the withdrawal of these forces without an executive guarantee from the Iraqi government that The complete neutrality of this country will not be realized in regional developments.

Also, it should be said that considering the increase in the intensity of Iraqi resistance attacks in the recent period, this action of the Americans is probably just to buy time and mediate some Shiite political forces to pressure. and to try to convince the resistance groups to stop these attacks and to adopt a political process for the withdrawal of these forces, because in the past year and before the war in Gaza, this situation practically prevailed over this issue, and the resistance forces, considering the mediation of the Shiite political forces, attacked They had stopped and given a chance to the political process, which has practically not yielded results. =”markup-container readmore-container”>Iraqi resistance attack on the American base in Al-Shadadi, Syria/ Sputnik: The American base in Al-Tanf was also targeted