US Rejects Iraqi Request to Remove Occupying Troops from Country

By Staff, Agencies

The US Friday rebuffed an Iraqi request to prepare to pull out its occupation troops, amid heightened tensions in the regions after the US assassination of IRGC’s Quds Force Commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani near Baghdad Airport.

In an attempt to tighten pressure on its arch foe, the United States imposed more sanctions on Iran, responding to the Iranian retaliation for the assassination, which was carried out in the form of ballistic missiles launched by the IRGC against the US occupation airbase of Ain al-Assad in Iraq’s Anbar.

Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi made his request in a phone call with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo late on Thursday in line with a vote by Iraq’s parliament last week, his office said in a statement.

Abdul Mahdi asked Pompeo to “send delegates to put in place the tools to carry out the parliament’s decision,” it said, adding without elaborating that the forces used in the killing had entered Iraq or used its airspace without permission.

The US State Department said any US delegation would not discuss the withdrawal of US occupation troops claiming that their presence in Iraq was “appropriate.”