BAGHDAD: Iraq wants a swift and orderly withdrawal of US-led military forces from its country, but has not set a timeline, Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said, describing their presence as destabilizing in the aftermath of the Gaza conflict.
These strikes, which came in reaction to dozens of drone and missile attacks on US soldiers since Israel launched its Gaza campaign, have fuelled concerns that Iraq might become a regional conflict hotspot once more.
“There is a need to reorganize this relationship so that it is not a target or justification for any party, internal or external, to tamper with stability in Iraq and the region,” Sudani said in an interview with Reuters on Tuesday in Baghdad.
Sudani said the exit should be handled through “a process of understanding and dialogue,” providing the first details of his thinking about the coalition’s future since his Jan. 5 statement that Iraq will begin the process of dismantling it.
“Let’s agree on a time frame (for the coalition’s exit) that is, honestly, quick, so that they don’t stay for too long and the attacks continue,” he added, saying that only an end to Israel’s war on Gaza will prevent regional escalation.
“This (the cessation of the Gaza war) is the only solution.” Otherwise, we will see further conflict in a crucial region for the world that holds much of its energy supply,” Sudani predicted.
A US withdrawal would undoubtedly deepen Washington’s worry about Iran’s influence over Iraq’s ruling class. Following the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, Iran-backed Shi’ite forces gained strength.
The Pentagon stated on Monday that it had no intentions to evacuate US troops currently stationed in Iraq at the invitation of the country’s government.
Iraq, OPEC’s second-largest oil producer, has been one of the most outspoken critics of Israel’s Gaza assault, calling the mass slaughter and displacement of Palestinian civilians as a textbook case of genocide, which Israel categorically denies.
However, the Iraqi government has frequently stated that armed groups’ attacks on foreign military and diplomatic missions in Iraq were unlawful and against the interests of the country, and that it has detained some criminals and thwarted attacks.
At the same time, Baghdad has criticized US bombings on the groups’ bases, as well as a recent strike on a senior militia commander in Baghdad’s core, as egregious abuses of sovereignty.
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Critics claim that the armed groups, which include Kataeb Hezbollah and Haraket Hezbollah al-Nujaba, use their membership in the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), a state security force that formed in 2014 as a coalition of militias, as a cover.
When they attack US soldiers, they act outside the chain of command under the flag of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq; when the US retaliates, they grieve their losses as PMF members and reap the benefits of increased anti-US sentiment.
In 2003, US-led forces invaded Iraq and deposed previous President Saddam Hussein, retreating in 2011 but returning in 2014 as part of an international coalition to battle the Islamic State. Approximately 2,500 US troops are now stationed in Iraq.
With Islamic State destroyed territorially in 2017 and on the decline ever since, Sudani believes the coalition’s raison d’être has long passed.
However, calls for the coalition’s dissolution have been around for years, and little has changed so far. Iraq’s parliament voted to leave the country in 2020, just days after the US assassinated top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani and a senior Iraqi terrorist commander in a strike near Baghdad airport.
The next year, the United States announced the end of its combat mission in Iraq and a shift to advising and helping Iraqi security forces, which had minimal impact on the ground.
The Gaza war has brought the issue back to the forefront, with several Iraqi organizations loyal to Tehran asking for the ultimate withdrawal of all foreign forces, a move long sought by Iran and its regional allies.
Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah party, said in a speech on Friday that US bombings in Iraq should pave the way for the complete evacuation of US forces from Iraq, making their presence in northeastern Syria untenable.
Sudani stated that he was pursuing the withdrawal of the coalition because Iraq could now defend itself against terrorism and should exercise complete sovereignty over its territory, avoiding providing anyone a reason to lure Iraq into regional strife.
“Ending its presence will prevent more tensions and the entanglement of internal and regional security issues,” Sudani said in a statement.
He stated that Iraq is open to building bilateral relations and security cooperation with coalition states, including the United States. This might include training and advising Iraqi security personnel, as well as purchasing weaponry.
U.S. “is not an enemy to us and we are not at war with it, but if these tensions continue it will definitely impact and create a gap in this relationship,” he added.
