U.S. Embassy: Coalition in Iraq Shifting to Bilateral Security Partnership

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – The United States has officially confirmed that the era of the U.S.-led international military coalition in Iraq is drawing to a close, announcing on Monday that the decade-long mission will transition into a more conventional bilateral security partnership. The formal statement from the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad solidifies a major strategic shift in the country's security framework, coming just a day after the Iraqi government laid out a concrete two-year timeline for the coalition's phased withdrawal.

In a statement received by the state-run Iraqi News Agency (INA) on Monday, the U.S. Embassy clarified the nature of the upcoming transformation. "The coalition's military mission in Iraq will transition to a more traditional bilateral security partnership," the embassy stated. While signaling the end of the multinational military structure formed in 2014 to combat ISIS, the statement was careful to distinguish this move from the broader global campaign against the terrorist group.

"This is not the end of the work of the international coalition to defeat ISIS, as it will continue its civilian-led efforts at the global level," the embassy added, according to the INA report.

The statement concluded by deferring specific operational questions, noting that "details related to our military plans and operations will be referred to the Ministry of Defense." The announcement provides official U.S. confirmation for a process that has been gaining momentum for months, driven by intense political pressure within Iraq.

High-Stakes Diplomacy in a New Era

The pivot away from a broad military coalition toward a more focused bilateral relationship was vividly illustrated by a concurrent meeting between Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Fuad Hussein, and the American Chargé d'Affaires, Ambassador Stephen Fagin.

According to a readout from the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the two officials met on Sunday to discuss "the course of bilateral relations between Iraq and the United States."

Crucially, the ministry’s statement highlighted that the talks addressed "the outstanding issues between the oil companies operating in the Kurdistan Region, and ways to address them in a manner that allows for the resumption of oil exports from the oil fields in the Region."

This focus on a complex internal economic and political dispute involving American commercial interests exemplifies the type of targeted engagement that will likely define the new bilateral era. The two sides also "touched upon regional developments," with Ambassador Fagin reviewing the U.S. government's position on recent events, the ministry concluded.

A Formal Timeline for Transition

The U.S. Embassy’s confirmation follows a detailed announcement from the Iraqi government on Sunday, which outlined a clear timeline for the coalition's departure. As previously reported by Kurdistan24, Hussein Allawi, an advisor to Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, stated that the mission would end in two phases.

The first stage, set for September 2025, will see the conclusion of the coalition’s presence in its Baghdad headquarters and at the crucial Ain al-Asad airbase.

According to Allawi, who spoke to the Iraqi News Agency, the final stage of the withdrawal is expected to be completed by September 2026. He emphasized that this decision is a core part of the Iraqi government's program to bolster its own armed forces and reshape its international security relationships.

“The Iraqi government is committed to its program of building the armed forces and ending the coalition’s mission, while transitioning relations with coalition countries into stable bilateral defense arrangements guided by political, economic, and cultural ties,” Allawi told INA.

The advisor stressed that this transition signals Baghdad’s intent to normalize its security ties with the United States and other coalition members, moving away from a multinational military framework toward individual agreements.

“It will return Iraqi-American and Iraq-coalition ties to the kind of strategic framework agreements that existed before the fall of Mosul to ISIS in 2014,” he added, framing the move as a return to a more standard state-to-state relationship.

The End of a Decade-Long Mission

The planned withdrawal marks the end of a defining era in Iraq’s post-2003 history. The U.S.-led international coalition was formed in 2014 at the request of the Iraqi government after ISIS stunned the world by capturing vast swathes of northern and western Iraq, including its second-largest city, Mosul.

At its peak, the coalition provided indispensable support to Iraqi security forces and the Kurdish Peshmerga, delivering critical airpower, training, and logistical assistance that were instrumental in the grueling campaign to liberate occupied territories.

While Iraq officially declared victory over ISIS in December 2017, thousands of coalition personnel remained in the country, their mission evolving into an advisory and counterterrorism role.

This presence, however, became an increasingly contentious issue in Iraqi politics. In 2021, Washington and Baghdad formally agreed to shift the U.S. role from combat to a non-combat training and advisory mission, but the continued stationing of troops on Iraqi soil remained a point of friction.

The new, definitive timeline signals Baghdad's determined push to assert full sovereignty over its security.

A Shift Driven by Intense Political Pressure

The move to dismantle the coalition framework is not happening in a vacuum.

It is the culmination of years of intense and escalating pressure from powerful political factions within Iraq, particularly pro-Iran groups with ties to the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF).

As detailed in previous Kurdistan24 reporting, these factions have been vocal in demanding a complete withdrawal of all foreign troops, arguing that their presence undermines Iraq’s sovereignty and security independence.

These calls reached a fever pitch following U.S. drone strikes in January 2024, which targeted a convoy in Baghdad and killed several senior PMF commanders.

Among them was Abu Baqir al-Saadi, a high-ranking commander in Kataib Hezbollah, one of Iraq’s most powerful Iran-backed groups. The U.S. justified the strike as a defensive measure against repeated attacks on American facilities in Iraq and Syria.

For pro-Iran factions, however, the incident became a powerful rallying cry, reinforcing their narrative that the U.S. was acting unilaterally and violating Iraqi sovereignty.

This perspective is not universally shared across Iraq’s fractured political landscape.

More moderate and nationalist factions have long argued for the importance of maintaining an international advisory presence, at least in the short term.

They contend that Iraqi forces still benefit from the intelligence-sharing, air support, and advanced training provided by coalition partners, which they see as essential for preventing a resurgence of ISIS sleeper cells.

These deep divisions were on full display during parliamentary debates earlier this year over motions to expedite the withdrawal. The final agreement to transition the mission thus reflects a hard-won compromise, balancing the demands for sovereignty with lingering security concerns as Iraq prepares to stand fully on its own.