Discussions for the long-term concentration of US forces in Iraq

Discussions for the long-term concentration of US forces in Iraq



Friday 19 May

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - US Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi and US officials have held talks in Baghdad on a deal that would ensure US forces stay in Iraq for a long time, the Washington Times reported.

The planned agreement, which dealt with legal and diplomatic standards, aims to provide Abadi with political cover to counter opponents of the long-term US presence in Iraq. The Associated Press quoted earlier an Iraqi official and another US saying that the talks held in early May is still in place.

The US newspaper quoted the former Defense Department "Pentagon" Eric Edelman said on Thursday that his country may need more than 20 thousand troops in Iraq, after the expected defeat of the state organization "urged" and the completion of the battle of Mosul.

Edelman said Abadi might abandon a parliamentary vote on any military deal with the United States, saying he might conclude such an agreement through an executive measure. It is expected that the definition of US soldiers as advisers to avoid the request for approval by parliament to the agreement, according to the Associated Press.

Abadi met in March in Washington, President Donald Trump, who confirmed his commitment to a strategic partnership with Baghdad, and last April met with Vice President Mike Pines.

The Washington Times pointed to the need for the United States to keep thousands of its troops and other staff of the US military in Iraq after the stage "urging".

Edelman, who served under President George W. Bush, said in an interview that four to 8,000 US troops could be enough to help local security forces maintain security in Mosul after the expulsion of the state.

But he pointed to the possibility of deployment of US military to work as advisers and not combat forces, in order to support the Iraqi police and army.

"We are dealing with the state organization," he said, "which has become very weak, after nearly two years of continuous war against him by Iraqi forces and Kurdish-backed Kurdish Peshmerga forces."

The Washington Times said there was a need for 5,000 to 20,000 US troops to support Iraqi forces to maintain their traditional battlefields against state organization and to hunt remnants of the organization within the strategy.

US and Iraqi officials say he has "lost" most of the territory he controls in Iraq and is also expected to lose his Iraqi capital, Mosul.

"But the state organization is a" preacher "may return to guerrilla tactics, and the US military presence is an urgent need to ensure that Iraq does not return to bloodshed.

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