US and Its Corporate Interests Won’t Leave Iraq Anytime Soon - Analyst

© AP Photo / Nabil al-Jurani

Svetlana Ekimenko

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Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani indicated in January that he was committed to speeding up negotiations with the US-led international coalition on the final withdrawal of its forces from the country. He confirmed Baghdad’s "steadfast and principled" position that the coalition had already fulfilled its mission.

Don’t expect the US to suddenly leave Iraq “while corporate interests steer American foreign policy,” Isa Blumi, an associate professor at the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at Stockholm University, told Sputnik.

“I don't see this happening […] unless there is a serious revolution in Iraq itself or in the larger region that sees the US leave permanently from these strategic and very lucrative arenas for American corporations to make money,” Blumi said, commenting on the ambiguous announcement of a partial drawdown of US forces in Iraq.

The US footprint “remains omnipresent, hegemonic, willing to use enormous violence,” he noted.

The military presence “will be modified” due to the “vulnerability of explicit American presence” to aerial attacks, which might chip away at the dimming aura of US invincibility, the expert underscored.

Since the beginning of the escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the bases of the US-led international coalition in Iraq, as well as US troops in Syria, have come under regular attacks, with armed Shiite groups claiming responsibility in Iraq.

World

US, Iraq Agree on Two-Phase Transition Plan to End Military Ops in Iraq – Senior Official

27 September, 20:47 GMT

The United States and Iraq have agreed on a two-phase transition plan to end military operations as part of the Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR) to defeat IS* terrorist group, a senior Biden administration official said on Friday. The transition period is set to begin in September and will conclude at the end of the same month in 2025.

Domestic politics could also be a motive as part of a “campaign message for the American people to be persuaded that the US is not participating in the events that are happening now [in the Middle East].”

Washington has claimed it had no advance knowledge of the Israeli operation to eliminate Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah. However, Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian alleged that “the order for this terrorist attack was issued from New York.”

The US “is not giving up its firm control over Iraq's oil,” which it has been plundering, he emphasized.

The CJTF-OIR was established in 2014 by the US Central Command as part of a combat mission against IS* forces. However, observers have noted that the operation was more about expanding the US' footprint and maintaining an illegal presence in the country.

The American withdrawal will “reduce the tension in Iraq,” Ali Mamouri, former strategic communication advisor to the Iraqi prime minister, told Sputnik.

The Afghanistan scenario, where the Taliban** swiftly swept to power in the wake of the disastrous US withdrawal, won’t be repeated in Iraq, according to Mamouri.

“Iraqi security forces are capable, well-skilled, in large number, and with the experience of defeating Daesh**. Moreover, regional forces support Iraq’s stability and no one benefits from unrest in Iraq at the moment,” he noted.

After a US drone strike at Baghdad International Airport assassinated Popular Mobilization Forces deputy leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis and Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani on January 3, 2020, Iraq’s parliament demanded that all US forces in the country be expelled. However, a reluctant Washington reclassified its operations from a "combat mission" to a "train, assist and advise" one.

In January, 2024, a US airstrike killed commander Mushtaq Taleb al-Saidi, leader of Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba, an Iraqi PMF-affiliated militia which helped rout Daesh* across Syria and Iraq between 2013 and 2017. This was followed by an announcement by Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani indicating that he would boost dialogue with Washington on the removal of all American forces from the country.

“It is a commitment that the government will not back down from, and will not neglect anything that would complete national sovereignty over the land, sky, and waters of Iraq,” Prime Minister al-Sudani emphasized in a statement.

Analysis

US Will Only Be Thrown Out of Iraq Kicking and Screaming: Here's Why

9 January, 18:58 GMT

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240930/us-and-its-corporate-interests-wont-leave-iraq-anytime-soon---analyst-1120357731.html

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