[pjw] NEWS: Biden, Iraqi PM agree on talks for US-led coalition withdrawal (AFP 4/16)

[Peace and Justice Works]

Hello Iraq Affinity Group supporters
With all the news swirling around "will Israel retaliate against Iran and 
what will it look like?" I did not see any news about Iraqi PM Al Sudani's 
visit to the US. I poked around and found this article from Agence France 
Presse-- others focused on the last few paragraphs of this article, that 
the PM called for "restraint" following the Iranian retaliatory attack on 
Israel.

The gist of the article is in the headline-- that the US and Iraq will 
keep talking (and talking and talking) about US withdrawal, with 
unconfirmed statements about the threat from the Islamic state, the excuse 
that Iraq's government is "fragile" (and no mention that may be DUE TO THE 
US PRESENCE), and... well, really no acknowledgment that these talks have 
been ongoing anyway so in a way this isn't new.

There's also only a passing reference to Gaza.

Well, at least there wasn't a 100% turnabout saying "the US must remain 
now that Iran is a 'threat.'"

Here you go.

dan handelman
peace and justice works iraq affinity group

  https://www.24newshd.tv/16-Apr-2024/biden-iraqi-pm-agree-on-talks-for-us-led-coalition-withdrawal
Biden, Iraqi PM agree on talks for US-led coalition withdrawal
    By AFP
    April 16, 2024 11:32 AM

    US President Joe Biden and Iraq's Prime Minister Mohamed Shia al-Sudani
    said Monday they would keep working towards the withdrawal of a US-led
    anti-jihadist coalition in the country.

    Their meeting at the White House came amid soaring tensions in the
    Middle East after Iraq's neighbor Iran launched a massive aerial attack
    on US ally Israel over the weekend.

    The US-led military coalition was formed in 2014 to fight the Islamic
    State group -- the year the jihadists overran nearly a third of Iraq's
    territory and swaths of neighboring Syria.

    Iraq has been trying to stay out of regional tensions amid the
    six-month war waged by Israel against Iran-backed Palestinian militants
    in Gaza, following Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel.

    Armed groups linked to Iran, including some based in Iraq, have since
    carried out a series of attacks on facilities belonging to the United
    States, which is Israel's main ally.

    Iraq, hoping not to be consumed by US-Iran hostility, strongly
    protested a US drone strike in February that killed an Iraqi militia
    leader, carried out in retaliation for an attack that killed three US
    service members in Jordan.

    But tensions have since subsided between Washington and Baghdad, and
    they resumed talks on the future of the coalition.

    In a joint statement, Biden and Sudani said they discussed the "natural
    evolution" of the coalition "in light of the significant progress that
    has been made in ten years."

    They would now look at issues including the continued threat from IS,
    the needs of the fragile Iraqi government for support, and bolstering
    Iraqi security forces, they said.

    "The two leaders affirmed they would review these factors to determine
    when and how the mission of the Global Coalition in Iraq would end,"
    they said in the statement.

    The aim would be to move to a bilateral agreement that could still keep
    some US troops in Iraq.

    The United States currently has some 2,500 troops in Iraq and 900 in
    Syria as part of the coalition.

    Biden and Sudani, making his first visit to Washington since taking
    office in 2022, also discussed the fractious situation in the region
    following Iran's attack on Israel.

    At the start of their meeting in the Oval Office, Sudani urged
    "restraint" on all sides to "stop the expansion of the area of
    conflict."

    US forces based near the northern Iraq city of Erbil were involved in
    the operation to counter the attack, using a Patriot missile battery to
    shoot down an Iranian ballistic missile.