Baghdad: Iraq’s president on Friday said he does not see any “serious” opposition when it comes to the presence of American forces in Iraq, provided they continue to be there specifically to assist Iraqi forces in the fight against the Islamic State group.
Barham Salih said there is “general consensus” that Iraq needs continued collaboration with the forces, which he said can go on “as long as it is necessary.” He also warned that the threat from IS extremists is far from over, despite the announcement of the group’s territorial defeat in Syria last week.
Salih spoke to the AP in an exclusive interview in Baghdad on Friday, a day before traveling to Tunis to attend an annual Arab summit meeting. Some 5,200 troops are stationed in Iraq as part of a security agreement with the Iraqi government to advise, assist and support the country’s troops in the fight against the Islamic State.
IS overran large parts of Iraq in 2014 after Iraqi forces collapsed, and it proceeded to declare a self-styled caliphate over territory straddling Iraq and Syria. The US forces, which had left Iraq in 2011 after invading in 2003, were invited back to assist the fight against the group, and Iraq declared victory over IS in late 2017 after a ruinous and bloody war.
“They are here for the specific mission of empowering and enabling Iraqi forces in the fight against ISIS. Nothing else. That is the specific exclusive mission, and in that context, I do not see serious opposition to the presence of these forces in Iraq today,” Salih said. Salih’s comments stand in stark contrast with that of mostly Iran-backed deputies in the Iraqi Parliament, who say they are preparing draft laws calling for a full withdrawal of US troops now that the war against IS is over.
An unannounced visit to Iraq by Trump in December, during which he failed to meet with the prime minister, as well as recent comments in which Trump said he wanted US troops to remain in Iraq to “watch Iran,” have also provoked outrage in Baghdad and fueled the debate.