Iraq PM Al Sudani moves to 'organise' foreign troops in country

There are about 2,500 US soldiers in Iraq and a separate multinational training force under Nato command

US soldiers at Qayyarah air base in Iraq. AFP

Iraq is in talks with a US-led international coalition formed to fight ISIS in 2014 to organise the presence of the foreign troops inside the country, Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al Sudani has said.

“Our stance in this regard [the presence of foreign troops, mainly US forces] is clear; Iraq doesn’t need combat troops. Period,” Mr Al Sudani told state TV channel Al Iraqiya on Tuesday.

He said the country had a security apparatus capable of handling any threats.

In 2003, the US led an international coalition to invade Iraq and topple Saddam Hussein’s regime, claiming it was developing and stockpiling weapons of mass destruction.

None were ever found in Iraq and the country was plunged into chaos after the invasion.

Nine years later, the US withdrew from Iraq, leaving behind a small number of troops to protect the US Embassy and to train and assist Iraqis. At its peak, the force numbered 170,000 soldiers in 2007.

However, combat troops returned to fight ISIS in 2014, which controlled about a third of the country at the time, as the US-trained Iraqi security forces melted away.

Despite the defeat of ISIS by the end of 2017, about 5,000 troops remained, along with others from the international coalition, to suppress the terrorist group.

Coalition presence 'needs to be organised'

In 2020, former US president Donald Trump reduced the number of soldiers in Iraq to 2,500.

In 2021, both countries agreed to end the US combat mission by December that year, shifting the mission's role to an advisory and educational one.

“The presence of the international coalition needs to be organised and the form of this relation needs to be redrawn,” Mr Al Sudani said.

How long the troops need to stay, their mission and duties, as well as the form of the co-ordination, should be “defined in a clear and transparent way and put in a legal frame to be presented to the political parties and parliament", he said.

“The government is now in dialogue with the international coalition, we have formed a team of security apparatus to lead this dialogue and we will reach the final formula to organise the presence of the international coalition troops,” Mr Al Sudani said.

He did not divulge more details.

The presence of the US troops in Iraq has been a controversial one.

After defeating ISIS, Iran-backed Shiite militias and Tehran have called for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq.

Tension mounted in 2019 and early 2020 after a US drone strike killed Qassem Suleimani, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp's elite Quds Force, along with senior Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi Al Muhandis at Baghdad Airport.

Mr Al Sudani took over in late October. He was the nominee of the Iran-aligned Co-ordination Framework, the largest political group in the Iraqi Parliament with 138 out of 329 seats.

The group comprises powerful Iran-backed Shiite militias and political parties.

Mr Al Sudani told The Wall Street Journal last month that the “elimination of ISIS needs some more time”, when asked about the presence of US troops in Iraq.