Iraq asks US for team to prepare troop withdrawal

BAGHDAD - The United States on Friday rejected a request by Iraq to send a delegation to start preparations to pull out its 5,200 troops in the country.

In a phone call late Thursday with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Iraq's caretaker Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi "requested that delegates be sent to Iraq to set the mechanisms to implement parliament's decision for the secure withdrawal of (foreign) forces from Iraq," the PM's office said on Friday.

The US State Department, however, defended the US troop presence in Iraq, saying it was aimed at fighting the Islamic State (IS) group.

"At this time, any delegation sent to Iraq would be dedicated to discussing how to best recommit to our strategic partnership - not to discuss troop withdrawal, but our right, appropriate force posture in the Middle East," State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said.

"America is a force for good in the Middle East," Ortagus said in a statement.

"We want to be a friend and partner to a sovereign, prosperous and stable Iraq," she added.

The United States invaded Iraq in 2003 to topple dictator Saddam Hussein, sparking bloodshed across the country.

After a withdrawal ordered by former president Barack Obama, US troops were invited back in 2014 to help defeat the extremist IS.

Executive agreements

Some 5,200 US soldiers are stationed at bases across Iraq to support local troops preventing a resurgence of IS, making up the bulk of a broader US-led coalition.

Their deployment was based on an executive-to-executive agreement never ratified by Iraq's parliament; but on Sunday, Iraq's parliament voted in favour of rescinding that invitation and ousting all foreign troops.

The following day, US commanders sent a letter to their counterparts in Baghdad saying they were preparing for "movement out of Iraq."

The letter said the coalition would "be repositioning forces over the course of the coming days and weeks to prepare for onward movement".

The Pentagon said the letter was a draft sent by mistake but Abdel Mahdi disputed that account, saying his office had received signed and translated copies.

He has demanded clarification from Washington of its intentions, while the US-led coalition said Thursday that it too was seeking clarity on the legal ramifications of parliament's vote.

The parliament voted for expulsion by 170 votes to 0. However, that vote barely met the required quorum stipulated in Iraq's constitution as many of the legislative body's 328 members did not attend, including Sunni and Kurdish lawmakers who boycotted the session.

The non-binding resolution would be considered valid when it is signed by the prime minister, but Abdel Mahdi is currently in that role in a caretaker capacity as months of anti-government protests have forced his Iran-backed government to resign.

Experts warned that the pullout of US troops, who are providing training activities to Iraqi forces, would weaken the latter’s ability to fight jihadists and give more hegemony to Iran in Iraq.

Senior US defence officials said the Trump administration has made no decision to depart, and US President Donald Trump insisted that US troops would not leave Iraq unless Baghdad pays Washington back.

“We have a very extraordinarily expensive air base that’s there. It cost billions of dollars to build,” Trump said on Air Force One as he returned to Washington from Florida on Sunday.

“We’re not leaving unless they pay us back for it,” he added.

'Screw Iran! Screw America!'

Although Trump has described the 2003 US invasion of Iraq as a mistake - and criticized US troop deployments as wasteful - he has responded angrily to the Iraqi efforts to expel US troops, even threatening sanctions on a country promoted as a US partner.

Pompeo, speaking to reporters, said that US troops' mission in Iraq was "very clear" - training local forces and fighting terrorism.

"As times change and we get to a place where we can deliver up on what I believe, and the president believes, is our right structure, with fewer resources dedicated to that mission, we will do so," he said.

In recent years Iraq has increasingly become a proxy battleground between the US and Iran, which also controls forces that helped fight IS.

Iranian-backed Iraqi Shiite militias have fired rockets at US bases as the Trump administration tries to strangle Iran through sweeping sanctions.

Many Iraqi lawmakers had been infuriated by a US drone strike on Baghdad a week ago that killed Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani and top Iraqi commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, among others.

Days later, Iran fired a volley of missiles at Iraqi bases used by US and other coalition troops, causing damage but no casualties, according to officials.

Meanwhile, anti-government protests resumed Friday across Iraq, with protesters denouncing the influence both of the United States and Iran.

Many Iraqis see both powers as being guilty of violating their country's sovereignty and using Iraq as the battleground of their standoff. They accuse Iraqi politicians of putting their allegiances to foreign powers ahead of their responsibilities in governing Iraq.

"Screw Iran! Screw America!" protesters cried out in the capital's iconic Tahrir Square, still lined with tents and stalls set up three months ago.

Fearing their movement would be eclipsed by war, Iraqi activists posted calls on social media in recent days for the mass protest on Friday, which marked the inverse date, 10/1, of the first rallies on October 1, or 1/10.

Protesters in the Shiite holy city of Karbala clashed overnight with security forces and others were arrested in Basra on Friday.

"By relaunching the protests, we're showing our commitment to the demands of the October revolution: that our leaders stop monopolizing our country's resources," said Haydar Kazem, protesting in Nasiriyah.