Iraqi Prime Minister Mohamed Chia al-Soudani spoke with US President-elect Donald Trump, saying he hopes he keeps his election “promises” and his “commitment” to “end wars” in the Middle East .
Brought to power by pro-Iranian parties, the Baghdad government is continuing a delicate balancing act to keep Iraq away from an explosive regional situation, with the war waged by Israel for more than a year in Gaza against Hamas Palestinian, and now in Lebanon against Hezbollah.
During their telephone conversation, Mr. Soudani highlighted “his attention to Mr. Trump’s statements and promises during his election campaign, including his commitment to ending wars in the region, and the two sides agreed to coordinate to achieve this,” according to a press release from the Iraqi Prime Minister’s office, published late Friday evening.
Iraq welcomes on its territory around 2,500 American soldiers deployed as part of an international coalition led by Washington to fight against the jihadists of the Islamic State (IS) group.
These soldiers were the target of dozens of rocket attacks and drone strikes in Iraq carried out by pro-Iranian Iraqi armed groups, who also claim attacks against Israel.
Negotiation
To defuse the situation, Baghdad negotiated with Washington the departure of the anti-jihadist coalition.
A transition plan calls for a gradual withdrawal of coalition personnel from Iraq. The first phase, until September 2025, provides for the departure of these soldiers from federal Iraq – then by September 2026 from autonomous Kurdistan in northern Iraq.
Under the first Trump presidency, on the orders of the American president, a drone killed Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, architect of Iranian strategy in the Middle East and head of the Quds Force, in 2020 on the road to Baghdad international airport. external operations of the Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s ideological army. Abu Mehdi al-Mouhandis, former number two of Hachd al-Chaabi, a coalition of ex-pro-Iranian paramilitaries integrated into the regular Iraqi forces, was also killed in this attack.
Relations between Baghdad and Washington then deteriorated considerably. As part of their investigation into the assassination of Mouhandis, Iraqi justice issued a national arrest warrant against Mr. Trump in January 2021.
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