US and Iraq agree to start talks to end presence of US-led coalition
Al Jazeera
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin says talks will take place as part of a military commission that was agreed upon in August 2023.
The United States and Iraq have agreed to start talks on the future of the US-led military coalition in Iraq with the aim of setting a timetable for a phased withdrawal of troops and the coalition’s end, both governments have announced.
The US has had a continuous presence in Iraq since its 2003 invasion.
US combat forces left in 2011, but thousands of troops returned in 2014 to help the Iraqi government defeat ISIL (ISIS).
In the years since, the presence of US forces, who have remained there to conduct counter-ISIL missions and training, has been a lightning rod for an increasingly influential faction of Iran-aligned militias and politicians in Iraq.
Iraq’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement on Thursday said Baghdad aims to “formulate a specific and clear timetable that specifies the duration of the presence of international coalition advisors in Iraq” and to “initiate the gradual and deliberate reduction of its advisors on Iraqi soil”, eventually leading to the end of the coalition mission.
