British report: Washington plans a long stay in Iraq

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[size=52]British report: Washington plans a long stay in Iraq[/size]

[size=45]A British report stated that the issue of the future presence of American forces in Iraq - despite the lack of final approval from Baghdad and Washington - has become a concluded agreement and is only waiting for time to be announced. However, it indicated that an American force will be stationed in Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region, to be an important line of communication with its continued presence in Syria.[/size]
[size=45]A report by the British website Middle East Eye stated that “American and Iraqi negotiators agreed to withdraw from Iraq in two stages, the first in September 2025, and the second in late 2026, due to American forces being exposed to repeated attacks by Iranian agents.”[/size]
[size=45]However, the report indicated that the agreement still needs “final approval” from leaders in Baghdad and Washington, but it is considered a “concluded agreement,” recalling that Reuters quoted an American official as saying that “it is now just a matter of determining the time to announce it.”[/size]
[size=45]The British report suggested that critics of the United States’ “eternal wars” would welcome this agreement, while decision-makers in the United States and its allies in the region who focus on Iran’s influence would be concerned.[/size]
[size=45]The report considered that removing US forces from Iraq is a goal for Iran, which has great influence over its Iraqi neighbor through “energy relations, religion, and militias that include tens of thousands of fighters.”[/size]
[size=45]According to the report, the plan agreed upon between Iraq and the United States stipulates that all US-led coalition forces will withdraw from Ain al-Asad air base in Anbar province, and significantly reduce their presence in Baghdad by September 2025.[/size]
[size=45]According to the British report, it is also decided that American soldiers and coalition forces will remain in the city of Erbil for only one year, because the withdrawal of American forces from the region may make Washington’s military presence in northeastern Syria “unsustainable.”[/size]
[size=45]The report quoted Andrew Tabler, the former director of Middle East affairs at the US National Security Council, as saying that “Erbil is crucial to supporting (the mission) in Syria,” explaining that the United States “needs to have the ability to move troops and supplies overland between the Iraqi and Syrian borders.”[/size]
[size=45]The report pointed out that the “legal justification” for the United States regarding its presence in Syria, where 900 American soldiers are stationed, is based on the justification of Washington’s agreement with Baghdad, noting that American forces are stationed in Iraq and Syria officially within the framework of the mission to fight and defeat ISIS, but this American presence is also viewed as a strategic wedge against Iran and its agents in the region.[/size]
[size=45]“If US forces withdraw, it will be at a time when other regional powers are exerting their military power on Iraq’s weak central government,” he continued, referring to recent Turkish airstrikes in northern Iraq, while an additional $700 million has been allocated to the roughly 150,000 Popular Mobilization Forces in Iraq’s three-year budget issued in 2023.[/size]
[size=45]The British Middle East Eye report concluded that "the announced deadline for the withdrawal of US forces will come after the end of the US presidential elections in late 2024."[/size]
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