The Iraqi army announced that Baghdad and Washington conducted new talks on Sunday to formulate a “structured and gradual timeline leading to the end of the mission of the international coalition forces” in Iraq.
Brigadier General Yahya Rasul, the Iraqi army spokesperson, stated that the meetings will be held periodically to finalize the committee’s work as quickly as possible, “as long as nothing disrupts the progress of the talks”.
The discussions began last January, but less than 24 hours later, three American soldiers were killed in an attack in Jordan, which the United States attributed to groups aligned with Iran in Syria and Iraq.
The international military coalition led by the United States was formed in 2014 with the aim of combating the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.
The United States has around 2,500 soldiers in Iraq and 900 in neighboring Syria as part of this coalition.
Military Situation Assessment
A statement from the Iraqi Armed Forces indicated that the Iraqi High Military Committee resumed “its meetings with the international coalition forces in Baghdad on Sunday” to assess “the military situation, level of threat, operational environment, and the capabilities of the Iraqi Armed Forces”.
Iraqi authorities express their desire to work on a bilateral military cooperation with each of the coalition countries as an alternative.
Conversely, the coalition and the United States appear more cautious in indirectly suggesting that these talks may take time.
In an earlier announcement resuming the talks, the coalition stated that the goal is to “assess the progress made in our joint mission to defeat the Islamic State and discuss the future transition of our mission”.
Since mid-October last year, American and coalition forces in Iraq and Syria have faced over 165 attacks.
Most of these attacks have been claimed by the “Islamic Resistance in Iraq”, comprising fighters from factions described as close to Iran.
These factions claim that their attacks are in solidarity with Gaza and against American support for Israel in its aggression against the region.
