Sudan PM: Iraq needs foreign forces to eliminate terrorists

MOSCOW, January 15 – RIA Novosti. According to the Wall Street Journal that interviewed him, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani did not set a timetable for the withdrawal of US troops from the country.

“We think we need foreign forces. It will take some time to eliminate ISIS,” Sudani said. He also noted that there is no need for “combat units” inside Iraq. It is noted that Washington assisted Baghdad with intelligence and military training.

According to the prime minister, he plans to send a delegation to the American capital to meet next month.

Al-Sudani also noted that Iraq wants to establish the same relations with the United States as the United States has with Saudi Arabia and other countries in the Persian Gulf.

On January 5, 2020, the Iraqi Parliament voted mostly in favor of the withdrawal of foreign troops and also spoke in favor of reviewing the format of cooperation with the US-led counter-terrorism coalition. These measures were a response to the US operation near Baghdad airport, on the night of January 3 of the same year, an Iranian general, Qasem Soleimani, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps special unit, and its vice president. Iraqi Shiite militia Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis was killed. After these events, the US-led coalition handed over to the Iraqi military a number of facilities where the US military was previously stationed, including a number of air bases and the headquarters of the coalition’s military advisers.

In 2021, General Kenneth Mackenzie, head of the US Armed Forces Central Command (CENTCOM), said that Washington will retain 2,500 troops in Iraq in the near future.

* Terrorist organization banned in Russia