The United States maintained on Tuesday that its policy in Iraq had not changed and that American troops would not leave the country, where they want to continue to prevent a resurgence of the Islamic State group. US President Donald Trump has said that withdrawing US troops from Iraq would be the “worst thing” that could happen to that country, stressing the danger his powerful Iranian neighbor poses to him. “It would be the worst thing that could happen to Iraq,” Trump said on Tuesday from the Oval Office while receiving Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. “At some point, we will leave (…) but that moment has not come,” he added.
“Our policy has not changed. We are not leaving Iraq,” said just before the United States Defense Minister during a press conference. The head of the Iraqi government Adel Abdel Mahdi did not ask Washington to withdraw his troops, added Mark Esper. “To my knowledge, I have not received any communication from him or from the Iraqi government on a law, or an order, or a request to withdraw American forces,” he said.
Esper also said he expected Iranian “reprisals”, “through their back-up (…) or with their own hands,” after the US strike that killed Iranian General Qassem in Iraq on Friday. Soleimani. But he called on Iran to “de-escalate”, ensuring that the United States remains open to dialogue. “If they want to sit at the negotiating table and discuss without preconditions with the United States on a better way to go (…) we can presume that this would free them from economic sanctions”, he said. he says.
An imminent attack
The attack on American interests that General Soleimani was planning was a matter of “days”, also assured the head of the Pentagon. While he had in the previous days assessed the imminence of this attack in “days, even weeks”, he clarified his remarks. “I think it’s fairer to talk about days, that’s for sure,” he said, citing “very precise information.”
“We had great information,” said Trump. “He was planning a very big attack and we stopped it.” “We saved a lot of lives by killing him,” said the president.
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