ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Iraqi Shiite clerics have praised the outcome of a meeting between Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi and US President Joe Biden at the White House on Monday, after Washington said the US will not be “in a combat mission” in Iraq by the end of this year.
“Thanks to the Iraqi national resistance, here is the occupation announcing the start of the withdrawal of its combat forces as a whole,” Muqtada al-Sadr, a prominent Shiite cleric and head of the Iraqi parliament’s largest bloc said late on Monday.
“Our role in Iraq… it’s just to be available to continue to train, to assist, to help and to deal with ISIS as it arrives. But we’re not going to be, by the end of the year, in a combat mission,” Biden said following his meeting with Kadhimi.
US troops were invited back to Iraq in 2014 to assist in the fight against ISIS. Iraqi bases hosting US-led coalition troops have come under multiple attacks since Washington assassinated top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in January of last year, which was quickly followed by a non-binding parliamentary resolution calling for the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Iraq.
Kadhimi has been under significant pressure to secure an American withdrawal of combat forces, and has said that there is no need for them in Iraq. Despite the shift in mission focus, no changes to troop numbers were announced on Monday and it is not clear if there will be any reduction of the 2,500 US soldiers currently in the country.
Shiite cleric and the head of Iraq’s National Wisdom Movement political bloc Ammar al-Hakim said the US-Iraq talks were “crowned with success,” and that they were supported by political powers.
We all “agree with the American side to withdraw combat forces by the end of the year but, keep the training, advisory & intelligence cooperation between the US and Iraq,” he tweeted, noting that Iraq’s rejection of foreign military presence should be replaced with “mutual relations” to preserve its interest, sovereignty, and position in the region.
The United States “reaffirmed its respect for Iraq’s sovereignty and laws and pledged to continue providing the resources Iraq needs to preserve its territorial integrity,” read a joint statement from Baghdad and Washington, published after the meeting.
The results of the strategic dialogue "are important to achieving stability and strengthening Iraqi sovereignty," Iraqi President Barham Salih said on Twitter, praising Kadhimi and the government for their "diligent work."
This year alone, there have been 27 reported attacks on US interests in Iraq and three in Syria, according to data compiled by Rudaw English. Iranian-backed militias who want to force the Americans’ withdrawal are widely blamed.
Kurdish officials are worried that a withdrawal of international forces would leave national troops unequipped to handle an ISIS resurgence, however.
“Iraq still needs the international coalition forces to be present,” Safeen Dizayee, head of the KRG’s foreign relations department, said on Saturday.
