The State Department on Friday made clear that the American military will not abide by the requests of the Iraqi government to leave the country and instead will stay indefinitely.
“America is a force for good in the Middle East,” State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus claimed in a statement reaffirming that the U.S. will remain in Iraq.
The statement comes after Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi said in a statement Friday that the U.S. needs to figure out how to abide by a decision by Iraq to remove its military from the country.
As Common Dreams reported, the Iraqi Parliament voted on January 5 to ask U.S. forces to leave the country.
U.S.-Iraqi relations have been strained since President Donald Trump ordered the drone strike assassination of Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani outside of Baghdad International Airport on January 3, nearly setting off a hot war before both sides backed down. Iraqi lawmakers, incensed by the attack and the lack of any notification by the U.S., voted unanimously two days later to demand American troops leave.
Abdul-Mahdi Thursday on a phone call with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo asked that the U.S. military begin the process of disengaging.
“Iraq is keen to keep the best relations with its neighbors and friends within the international community, and to protect foreign representations and interests and all those present on Iraqi soil,” Abdul-Mahdi said Friday.
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