Iraqi Prime Minister Mohamed Chia al-Soudani, who has been in office since the end of October, admits in an interview published in the Wall Street Journal on Sunday that his country still “needs foreign troops”, mainly American troops. “We believe that we need foreign forces,” said the Iraqi head of government, adding: “It will take a while before the Islamic State group is eliminated.”
“We don’t need troops fighting on Iraqi territory,” he said, adding, “The threat to Iraq comes from cell intrusion [de l’Etat islamique] from Syria. The United States maintains approximately 2,000 troops in Iraq for training and advisory missions. NATO is also leading a non-combat mission in Iraq involving “several hundred people” from multiple countries, NATO members or partners (Australia, Finland, Sweden), according to its website.
Spare Iran and the United States
“I don’t think it’s impossible for Iraq to have good relations with both Iran and the United States,” Mohamed Chia al-Soudani said. His government, born after a year of sometimes bloody showdowns, relies on pro-Iranian parties that dominate the assembly. Iraq is also very dependent on its neighbor for gas and electricity. He faces immense expectations from an Iraqi people exhausted by a severe economic and social crisis.
The Iraqi Prime Minister traveled to Tehran at the end of November, a visit marked by promises of increased cooperation on security issues, but also on economic issues. In the interview published on Sunday, however, Mohamed Chia al-Soudani is careful to spare the US, which is further hardening its tone towards the Iranian regime. He told reporters interviewing him that he would soon be sending a high-level delegation to Washington, perhaps as a prelude to a meeting with US President Joe Biden.