Anonymous US defense officials told the Wall Street Journal earlier this month that Baghdad and Washington had reached an agreement on ending the presence of US and other foreign troops in Iraq by the end of 2026, not counting a "small contingent" that may be allowed to stay "indefinitely." According to Reuters, "hundreds" of troops from the approximately 2,500 US troop-strong contingent may leave.
A senior Biden administration spokesman told reporters on Friday that the US-led coalition mission in Iraq would formally end in September 2025 as part of a two-phase "evolution" of its mission, with the first involving "ending the presence of coalition forces in certain locations in Iraq as mutually determined," and the second reaching "an understanding to allow the coalition to continue to support counter-ISIS* operations in Syria from Iraq...until at least September 2026."
The US has actively used the "counter-ISIS operations" catch-all to justify its ongoing presence in Iraq, and occupation and plunder of oil and food-rich northeastern regions of Syria.
"To be clear, the United States is not withdrawing from Iraq," the US official speaking to reporters Friday assured. "We are moving toward the type of productive long-term security relationship that the United States has with partners around the world."
Iraqi lawmakers, officials and militias have put pressure on the US to end its presence in the country going back to 2020, when a US drone strike killed Qasem Soleimani, a senior Iranian IRGC commander and military advisor to Iraq's anti-terror forces, in Baghdad while he was on a diplomatic mission aimed at normalizing relations with Saudi Arabia. The Trump administration announced plans to fully quit Iraq in November 2020, but the incoming Biden team reversed course, rebranding the US combat mission in the country to an 'advise and assist' presence, and withdrawing few if any troops between 2021 and now.
US plas to ‘mostly’ end its presence in Iraq is an “expected step, thought it came too late,” Dr. Muhannad Alazzeh, a former Jordanian senator and international rights commissioner, told Sputnik.
Pointing to the regularity of attacks and the trickle of casualties US forces have taken to various militias, including the recent stream of attempts to strike US bases with artillery and drones over America's support for Israel in Gaza, Alazzeh said that the years the US has spent in Iraq appear to have finally proven “more than sufficient to convince any illegitimate interferer that they have to quit.”
“The US administration decided to invade Iraq in 2003 on false pretenses related to weapons of mass destruction which were not found,” Allazzeh recalled, adding that the promises made by Washington about 'liberating Iraqis' and 'spreading democracy' were never delivered. Instead, Washington is “leaving…behind them an armed conflict among tens of groups, severe corruption and a flabby administrative system.”
Ultimately, Dr. Alazzeh is convinced Washington’s plans are tied to the upcoming US elections. “The USA invaded Iraq for electoral reasons and they’re leaving for electoral reasons,” he said.
As for US plans to keep a small number of troops in Iraq even after the bulk of the forces is pulled out, this makes strategic sense from the standpoint of US policymakers, says political analyst Dr. Hossein Askari.
“Let’s be clear, the United States does not want to totally leave Iraq. It will always want to keep a post inside Iraq – to monitor Iran’s activities in Iraq, Syria, their implication for Israel and to support [allied and pro-American] elements inside Iraq,” Askari, a professor emeritus at George Washington University, said.
“At the same time, there are ominous signs of anti-Americanism in the entire region because of America’s total support and assistance to Israel in its ongoing genocide. Because of this, the Iraqi establishment and government are trying to trumpet the message that they are in no way supporting the United States and that its role inside Iraq will be winding down,” the observer said.
*ISIS (also known as Daesh/ISIL/IS) is a terrorist organization outlawed in Russia and many other countries