Pentagon: US, Iraq to Discuss Future Security Cooperation—not Troop Withdrawal

WASHINGTON DC, United States (Kurdistan 24) –  On Thursday, U.S. defense officials announced that meetings of the U.S.-Iraq Higher Military Commission (HMC) would start soon.

Those officials—in two briefings, as well as a statement issued by Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin—made it clear that the purpose of the meetings was not to discuss an end to the U.S. military presence in Iraq, as Iraqi officials have been suggesting.

Rather, the purpose of the meetings, U.S. officials said, was to plan a framework for future security cooperation between Washington and Baghdad. Indeed, the report on this issue of the highly regarded U.S. military magazine, Task and Purpose, was titled, “US military pushes back on reports it may withdraw troops from Iraq.”

U.S.-Iraq Joint Security Cooperation Dialogue 

The HMC was established last August during meetings of the U.S.-Iraq Joint Security Cooperation Dialogue, as Austin explained. That meeting, held in Washington, was led by Austin on the U.S. side and, on the Iraqi side, by the Defense Minister, Thabet al-Abbasi.

Read More: Defense Secretary Affirms U.S. Support for Iraq in First Day of Strategic Dialogue

After the first day of the Strategic Dialogue, Abbasi stressed that it is “most important now to enhance relationships and the cooperation between us and the United States moving forward.” 

“We are very encouraged,” Abbasi said, and “we are not going to leave Washington without success.”

HMC Meetings 

Regarding the just-announced HMC meetings, Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary, Sabrina Singh, told journalists on Thursday they would start “in coming days.”

But the HMC, she explained, “is not a negotiation about the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq.” 

Rather, expert working groups will discuss “three key factors,” she said: “the threat from ISIS; operational and environmental requirements; and the Iraqi Security Forces’ capability levels.”

Speaking earlier to journalists on condition of anonymity, a Senior Defense Official even suggested that other parties would be involved. 

“The HMC will be led by U.S. and Iraqi delegations, in close consultation with Coalition partners every step of the way,” he said.

He also stressed, as Singh did, “the HMC meeting is not a negotiation about the withdrawal of U,S, forces from Iraq.”

Rather, the ultimate aim of the HMC is to establish a “timeline” in which the defense relationship between Iraq and the U.S. will “transition” from the current mission of defeating ISIS to what Singh described as “an enduring bilateral security partnership.”

As the Senior Defense Official put it, “The United States and the Coalition are in Iraq at the invitation of the Iraqi government to fight ISIS,” adding, “our Iraqi partners have assured us of their commitment toward working together to shape this future U.S. military presence and ensure the enduring defeat of ISIS.”

Middle East Tensions—and Resulting Double Speak

Asked directly whether the Iraqi government had requested that U.S. forces leave the country, Singh responded, “We’ve received no request from the government of Iraq to withdraw our forces.”

One would not know that, however, from official statements in Baghdad, which suggest that the talks are about ending the U.S. military presence in Iraq.

The announcement of the start of the HMC discussions comes amid rising tensions throughout the Middle East against the backdrop of the war in Gaza, triggered by Hamas’s bloody Oct. 7 assault on Israel. That includes attacks carried out by pro-Iranian militias on military bases in Iraq and Syria that host U.S. troops.

As the Institute for the Study of War explained, “Iran and its so-called ‘Axis of Resistance’ are exploiting the Israel-Hamas war to support their objective of expelling US forces from the Middle East.”

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shi’a al-Sudani is a reasonable figure and not a sectarian chauvinist. It was, after all, the decision of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, and its leader, Masoud Barzani, that ended the year-long stalemate that followed Iraq’s 2021 elections and made Sudani the new prime minister.

Read More: Iraqi PM-designate lauds Masoud Barzani—underscoring importance of KDP in Iraqi politics

But Sudani is under great pressure from pro-Iranian elements to move against the U.S. military presence in Iraq, as an informed source advised Kurdistan 24. And, the source added, Washington is fully aware of Sudani’s difficulties.

Thus, Baghdad’s announcement of the start of the HMC had a different emphasis. Iraqi officials, including Defense Minister Abbasi, portrayed it as the start of talks to end the U.S. military presence in Iraq—a very different position from that which he had expressed just six months before!

That is the effect of Iranian pressure, which Washington has been slow to recognize and counter, as critics, like Amb. John Bolton, have complained.

Read More: Amb. John Bolton: Biden Administration fails to understand Iran’s centrality in regional attacks