The United States’ military presence in Iraq and Syria, established in 2014 to supposedly combat ISIS, is reportedly coming to an end.
“Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin confirmed on Thursday that the U.S. and Iraq will start talks on the future of the U.S. military presence in Iraq in the ‘coming days’, which could result in a U.S. withdrawal.
Baghdad has been calling for an end to the presence of the U.S.-led anti-ISIS coalition in response to recent U.S. airstrikes in Iraq.
Austin said the two countries will convene a meeting of the U.S.-Iraq Higher Military Commission (HMC), which was formed last summer. Signaling that the U.S. wants to maintain some sort of presence in Iraq, Austin said the HMC will ‘enable the transition to an enduring bilateral security partnership between the United States and Iraq’.
There are about 2,500 U.S. troops in Iraq as part of the anti-ISIS coalition, known as Operation Inherent Resolve. In recent years, the U.S. presence in Iraq has been more about pushing back against Iran’s influence in the country as ISIS has been reduced to small remnants.
Austin said the ‘transition’ in the U.S. presence depends on three factors: ‘the threat from ISIS, operational and environmental requirements, and the Iraqi security forces’ capability levels’.
There have been reports that indicate the U.S. is also considering ending its military occupation of eastern Syria. There are about 900 U.S. troops, and the US is able to control about one-third of Syria’s territory by backing the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Sources within the Pentagon and State Department told Foreign Policy that the White House ‘is no longer invested in sustaining a mission that it perceives as unnecessary’. Al-Monitor reported that the Pentagon floated a plan for the SDF to partner with the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad, which is under crippling U.S. sanctions”. -Dave DeCamp, Antiwar
Since October 19th, U.S. troops have purportedly come under fire over 150 times by Iraqi Shia militias in both Iraq and Syria.
Now, with the Pentagon stating that it has no plans to withdraw troops from the region, according to Baghdad, only an end to Israel’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip would put a stop to further escalation across the Middle East.