Iraq says US troop drawdown talks will go on ‘as long as nothing disturbs the peace of the talks’
WASHINGTON — The Iraqi government spoke again on Sunday with the US government about how to withdraw American troops who have been deployed there for years in the fight against Islamic State.
The two governments had held their first, long-awaited meeting on January 27, but those meetings were suspended after Iranian-backed militants attacked a base in Jordan the next day with a drone that killed three US service members.
In the weeks since, the US has launched multiple retaliatory strikes in Iraq and Syria, including an attack last week that killed a senior commander of the powerful Kataib Hezbollah militia, which the US says is responsible for “directly planning and participating in attacks ” on US forces in the region.
Both Iraq and the US agreed last August to begin talks to transition US forces from their long-standing role in assisting Iraq in the fight against IS. There are about 2,500 troops in the country, and their departure will take into account the security situation on the ground and the capabilities of the Iraqi forces, the Iraqi government said in a statement posted Sunday on X, formerly Twitter.
The resumed meetings will continue to chart a path to a new bilateral relationship “as long as nothing disturbs the peace of the talks,” Iraq said in its statement.
Iraq has long struggled to balance its ties with the US and Iran, both allies of the Iraqi government but regional archenemies. Since the war between Israel and Hamas broke out in the wake of the October 7 Hamas attacks, Iran-affiliated groups have attacked US facilities in Iraq, Syria and Jordan 170 times, prompting US retaliatory airstrikes that have targeted Kataib Hezbollah blamed for a series of these attacks.
The Iraqi government has angrily condemned US airstrikes against Kataib Hezbollah, part of the Popular Mobilization Forces.
The Popular Mobilization Forces, or PMF, are state-sanctioned, mainly Shiite militias that have grown into a powerful political faction estimated to hold the most seats in Iraq’s parliament.
But the deaths of three US service members at Tower 22 in Jordan was a red line for the US and in the days after the deadly attack, Iran denied any knowledge or connection to the attack, and Kataib Hezbollah said it would stop launching attacks so as not to embarrass the Iraqi government.
It is striking that there have been no new attacks on American bases in Iraq since February 4.