US Occupation Plotting to Keep Boots on Iraqi Soil

By Staff

A confidential document obtained by Lebanese al-Akhbar Newspaper exposed Washington’s intention not to withdraw from Iraq.

The secret document revealed that Deputy Commanding General of the US so-called Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve, Richard Bell, asserted that the US won’t withdraw from Iraq after the end of 2021.

General Bell made the remarks in a meeting with Arab and foreign Ambassadors and diplomats in the Iraqi capital, which was held in September 2021, a date that follows the agreement sealed between Iraqi PM Mustafa al-Kadhimi and US President Joe Biden end the US combat mission in Iraq.

The agreement provided formally ending the US combat mission in Iraq by the end of 2021, while claiming that the US forces will still operate there in an advisory role.

Bell alleged that the statement sums the outcome of the “joint American-Iraqi strategic dialogue regarding the withdrawal was written accurately,” adding that the mission of the “coalition” was restructured about a year earlier.

“The main challenge facing the coalition is how to legitimize its presence through the Iraqi government and the constitutional institutions,” Bell was cited as saying, claiming that the full withdrawal will lead to “catastrophic results.”

American occupation forces are required to leave Iraq under a resolution passed by the Arab country’s parliament on January 5, 2020.

It was approved two days after the US assassinated Iran’s anti-terror commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani and his Iraqi trenchmate Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy head of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units [PMU], better known in Arabic as Hashd al-Shaabi, two influential figures in the fight against Daesh [the Arabic acronym for terrorist ‘ISIS/ISIL’ group].

However, Washington has been dragging its feet on the troop pullout and targeting resistance groups from time to time.