WASHINGTON – President Trump met with Mustafa al-Kadhimi, the Iraqi prime minister, at the White House on Thursday, after months of negotiations between the two governments over the presence of U.S. troops in the country.
Mr Trump’s meeting with Mr al-Kadhimi, a former intelligence chief, culminated in two days of high-level meetings between senior US and Iraqi officials dealing with a range of security, energy, economic and health issues. But a central focus of the prime minister’s visit is the negotiations, which began in May, on resetting the US military mission in Iraq.
“We will discuss military,” Mr. Trump said. “We are also involved in many oil projects and oil development in their country. And I think we’ve had a very, very good relationship since we started. We now have a very small number of soldiers in Iraq. ”
There are about 5,200 US troops in Iraq, whose main missions are counter-terrorism and training of Iraqi troops. Some of these troops also support some 500 U.S. troops in neighboring Syria.
Both leaders have emphasized their desire for a reduction of troops, but the details of how that would happen are expensive. The Iraqis have said they want assistance from the Americans without a large military presence, while the Trump administration, pinned on the threat of Iranian influence, has been advised to keep a small number of troops on the ground.
Mr. Trump has signaled that he wants to withdraw all U.S. troops from the region, from both Iraq and Syria. ‘We bring them home from Syria. We’re bringing them home from Iraq, “he told Fox & Friends on Monday.” These endless wars, they never stop. “
On Thursday, Mr al-Kadhimi responded as the president reiterated his desire to remove troops from the area.
“That we will apparently be gone at some point,” Mr. Trump said. “We look forward to the day we do not have to be, and hopefully Iraq can live its own life and defend itself, which it did long before we were involved.”
In a meeting with journalists following the White House meeting, Mr al-Kadhimi reaffirmed the need for ongoing US military assistance to help combat remnants of the Islamic State.
“We need the support of the United States,” he said. “The war against ISIS is over, but sleeping cells for ISIS and other terrorist groups are still there.”
The prime minister raised the question of how long and exactly how many US troops should stay in Iraq, saying that conditions on the ground dictate that. But he stressed that the role of American troops in the country has already shifted.
“We have absolutely no need for combat troops in Iraq,” Mr al-Kadhimi said. “But we need training.”
The prime minister, who took office in May after widespread anti-government protests and amid the coronavirus pandemic and persistent unemployment, is largely seen as a transition leader to steer his country through a period of great economic and social upheaval.
His appointment also came during a political downturn that escalated after a U.S. drone strike killed General Qassim Suleimani, a top Iranian officer, at Baghdad International Airport in January. This resulted in a vote by the Iraqi parliament demanding that all US troops leave the country.
In an interview with reporters held before the visit, senior administration officials stressed that “there were no hard and fast timelines, and there are no hard and fast figures” about when each reduction of troops would happen. But U.S. commanders have already withdrawn hundreds of troops from various Iraqi bases, consolidating them at half a dozen locations in the country.
The Pentagon has also advised Mr Trump that a small contingent – some 2,500 troops or so – should remain to advise and assist the Iraqi government in its fight against Islamic State fighters and as a stronghold against Iranian influence in Iraq. , where skirmishes between the United States and Iran have played out on the land of the country.
Other members of the 29-nation US military coalition in Iraq have already halved their numbers, to about 1,200 troops, largely due to the pandemic, which has halted most training.
“We do not want to keep a large number of soldiers in Iraq forever. We want to get smaller, “said Generation Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., chief of the Army’s Central Command, at an online security conference last week, noting that Iraqi troops were for the most part ready to fight.
The Pentagon is reluctant to keep more than the absolute minimum of troops in Iraq because they have been attacked by Iranian-backed militias. In an attack on an Iraqi base in March, three soldiers of the US-led military coalition in Iraq killed, including two Americans, and 14 wounded.
“Everyone says the numbers are going down,” said Michael Knights, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, who met with Mr. al-Kadhimi and his top aides this week.
In an interview with The Associated Press before his departure from Baghdad, Mr al-Kadhimi said the cooperation should “reflect the changing nature of the terrorist threat”, including continuing training and arms support.
On Thursday, he also praised the close sharing of intelligence between United States and Iraqi troops as a key factor in recent successes against the Islamic State.
In addition to discussing the U.S. military presence, the strategic talks have also deepened in energy, health, and the economy.
The United States wants to help expand Iraq’s oil and gas industry, at least in part to ward off Iraq’s energy. Iraq, which has the world on the fifth largest proven crude oil reserves, often relies on Iran for gas and electricity.
Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette said on Wednesday that several U.S. companies, including Honeywell and GE, have signed commercial partnership agreements worth up to $ 8 billion with Iraqi energy and oil ministries. As part of the package, Chevron announced an agreement that the company could develop a large oil field in southern Iraq.
Mr al-Kadhimi will cancel his visit to Washington on Friday with a meeting with speaker Nancy Pelosi, Iraqi officials said.
