Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammad Shia al-Sudani and White House Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa Affairs Brett McGurk and the representative of US President Joe Biden met and talked with each other.
According to the Monday evening report of the official Iraqi news agency (WAA), in this meeting, the two sides “discussed the relations between Iraq and the United States and ways to strengthen and develop them in all fields in line with the interests of the people of Iraq and the United States.”
According to this report, the Prime Minister of Iraq, in a conversation with the Biden envoy, emphasized that the government of this country intends to open new horizons of cooperation with friendly and brotherly countries in order to secure the interests of the Iraqi people.
In this meeting, Mohammad Shia al-Sudani also emphasized on “the ability of the Iraqi security forces to fight terrorism and stabilize stability, which has been achieved due to great sacrifices on Iraqi soil.”
In contrast, Biden’s envoy claimed that the United States supports the current Iraqi government and continues to advise Iraqi forces in the fight against ISIS.
The White House coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa also claimed that Washington is committed to the “Strategic Framework” agreement, supporting the Iraqi government’s energy, infrastructure and climate change reforms.
Based on this statement, Brett McGurk further stated that the United States is interested in the results of the “Baghdad 2” summit, the effort to develop the common infrastructure of Iraq and neighboring countries, as well as the upcoming visit of Iraqi Foreign Minister Fouad Hussein to Washington in order to hold meetings of the High Coordination Committee of the Framework Agreement. Welcomes a strategy.
In this statement, it is also mentioned that “Amos Hochstein”, the coordinator of the US presidency in the field of global infrastructure and energy security, as well as “Alina Romanoski”, the ambassador of Washington to Baghdad, were present in this meeting.
According to reports, Iraqi Foreign Minister Fouad Hossein is going to visit America soon in order to prepare preparations for Sudani’s trip to Washington. The final time of the Iraqi Prime Minister’s visit to America has not yet been determined, and the contacts with the American side to carry out this trip are continuing.
In late December 2021, the former Prime Minister of Iraq, Mustafa Al-Kazemi, announced the end of the combat mission of the international coalition against ISIS under the leadership of the United States, and announced the readiness of the Iraqi forces to defend their country and emphasized that the role of the American forces is to advise and train. is limited.
The decision to change the mission of the US forces from a combat mode to a training mode was made after several rounds of strategic dialogue between Baghdad and Washington.
Now, on the eve of Sudani’s visit to Washington, many Iraqi political parties and groups expect him to give priority to the case of the withdrawal of American soldiers from the country. But at the same time, some analysts and Iraqi political figures, including MP Mustafa Sanad, have stated that Washington, through playing with the dollar price in Iraq, seeks to blackmail the country’s prime minister in important cases such as Baghdad-Tehran relations, energy, The future of American forces [present in Iraq] and security agreements with this country.
The American military presence in Iraq goes back to the time of the fall of Saddam in 2003, when about 150 thousand American soldiers entered the territory of Iraq and this presence continued until 2011. At that time, a significant part of the American forces left Iraq; But in 2014, at the same time as the formation of the international coalition against ISIS under the command of the United States, the military presence of the United States strengthened once again. Since then, about 6,000 American troops are present in this country under the pretext of advising and training the Iraqi military and security forces and fighting terrorism.
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