© Reuters. Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani walks earlier than an interview with Reuters in Baghdad,Iraq January 9, 2024. REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani
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By Timour Azhari
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraq needs a fast and orderly negotiated exit of U.S-led army forces from its soil however has not set a deadline, Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani stated, describing their presence as destabilising amid regional spillover from the Gaza conflict.
Longstanding calls by largely Shi’ite Muslim factions, many near Iran, for the united statesled coalition’s departure have gained steam after a sequence of U.S. strikes on Iran-linked militant teams which can be additionally a part of Iraq’s formal safety forces.
These strikes, which got here in response to dozens of drone and missile assaults on U.S. forces since Israel launched its Gaza marketing campaign, have raised fears that Iraq may as soon as once more grow to be a theatre for regional battle.
“There is a need to reorganise this relationship so that it is not a target or justification for any party, internal or foreign, to tamper with stability in Iraq and the region,” Sudani informed Reuters in an interview in Baghdad on Tuesday.
Giving the primary particulars of his occupied with the way forward for the coalition since his Jan. 5 announcement that Iraq would start the method of closing it down, Sudani stated the exit needs to be negotiated beneath “a process of understanding and dialogue”.
“Let’s agree on a time frame (for the coalition’s exit) that is, honestly, quick, so that they don’t remain long and the attacks keep happening,” he stated, noting that solely an finish to Israel’s conflict on Gaza would cease the chance of regional escalation.
“This (end of the Gaza war) is the only solution. Otherwise, we will see more expansion of the arena of conflict in a sensitive region for the world that holds much of its energy supply,” Sudani stated.
A U.S. withdrawal would seemingly improve concern in Washington concerning the affect of arch foe Iran over Iraq’s ruling elite. Iran-backed Shi’ite teams gained power in Iraq after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
The Pentagon on Monday stated it had no plans to withdraw U.S. troops, that are in Iraq on the invitation of its authorities.
Iraq, OPEC’s second-largest oil producer, has been among the many fiercest critics of Israel’s Gaza marketing campaign, describing the mass killing and displacement of Palestinian civilians as a textbook case of genocide, claims Israel vehemently denies.
However Iraq’s authorities has repeatedly additionally stated the assaults by armed teams on international forces and diplomatic missions in Iraq had been unlawful and went in opposition to the nation’s pursuits, and says it has arrested some perpetrators and prevented assaults.
On the identical time, Baghdad has condemned U.S. strikes on bases utilized by the teams, in addition to a latest strike in opposition to a senior militia commander within the coronary heart of Baghdad, as grave violations of sovereignty.
Critics say the armed teams, together with Kataeb Hezbollah and Haraket Hezbollah al-Nujaba, use their standing as members of the Standard Mobilization Forces (PMF), a state safety drive that started as a grouping of militias in 2014, as a canopy.
When putting at U.S. forces, they function exterior the chain of command beneath the banner of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq; when the U.S. retaliates, they mourn their losses as members of the PMF and reap the rewards of rising anti-U.S. sentiment.
U.S.-led forces invaded Iraq and toppled former chief Saddam Hussein in 2003, withdrawing in 2011 however then returning in 2014 to combat Islamic State as a part of a world coalition. The U.S. at the moment has some 2,500 troops in Iraq.
With Islamic State territorially defeated in 2017 and on the demise ever since, Sudani stated the coalition’s raison d’etre had long-since ended.
YEARS IN THE MAKING
However requires the coalition’s withdrawal have been round for years and, up to now, little has modified. Iraq’s parliament in 2020 voted for its departure days after the U.S. assassinated prime Iranian normal Qassem Soleimani and a senior Iraqi militant commander in a strike exterior Baghdad airport.
The subsequent yr, the U.S. introduced the tip of its fight mission in Iraq and a shift to advising and helping Iraqi safety forces, a transfer that modified little on the bottom.
The Gaza conflict has put the problem again in centre stage, with many Iraqi teams that introduced Sudani’s authorities to energy and are near Tehran calling for the ultimate exit of all international forces, a transfer lengthy sought by Iran and its regional allies.
The chief of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, stated in a speech on Friday that U.S. strikes in Iraq ought to pave the way in which for the ultimate withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq, which might additionally make their presence in northeastern Syria untenable.
Sudani stated he was searching for the coalition’s exit as a result of Iraq may now defend itself from terrorism and may exert full sovereignty over its territory – thereby avoiding giving anybody an excuse to attract Iraq into regional battle.
“Ending its presence will prevent more tensions and the entanglement of internal and regional security issues,” Sudani stated.
He stated Iraq was open to establishing bilateral relations and fascinating in safety cooperation with coalition nations, together with the U.S. This might together with coaching and advising Iraqi safety forces in addition to weapons purchases.
The U.S. “is not an enemy to us and we are not at war with it, but if these tensions continue it will definitely impact and create a gap in this relationship,” he stated.