SULAIMANI (ESTA) — The United States will maintain a presence in Iraq with a different mission, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said on Monday.
U.S. President Joe Biden and Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi who met in the Oval Office on Monday sealed an agreement formally ending the U.S. combat mission in Iraq by the end of 2021, more than 18 years after U.S. troops were sent to the country.
It was their first face-to-face talks as part of a strategic dialogue between the United States and Iraq.
“We are moving to a phase not where we are ending our partnership; we are maintaining a presence in Iraq with a different mission, in coordination with leadership of, of course, the Iraqi leadership, and one where we feel we can continue to be quite constructive in fighting ISIS and fighting the dangerous threats from Iranian proxies,” Psaki said in a press conference.
“This is a shift in mission; it is not a removal of our partnership or our presence or our close engagement with Iraqi leaders,” she added.
Coupled with Biden’s withdrawal of the last American forces in Afghanistan by the end of August, the Democratic president is completing U.S. combat missions in the two wars that then-President George W. Bush began under his watch.
“Our role in Iraq will be … to be available, to continue to train, to assist, to help and to deal with ISIS as it arises, but we’re not going to be, by the end of the year, in a combat mission,” Biden told reporters as he and Kadhimi met.
There are currently 2,500 U.S. troops in Iraq focusing on countering the remnants of Islamic State (ISIS). The U.S. role in Iraq will shift entirely to training and advising the Iraqi military to defend itself.
The shift is not expected to have a major impact since the United States has already moved toward focusing on training Iraqi forces.
Iraq’s Shia parties welcomed the agreement on the withdrawal of U.S. combat forces stationed in Iraq.
A joint statement by the U.S. and Iraqi governments said the United States intended to continue its support for the Iraqi forces, including the Peshmerga, to build their capacity to deal with future threats.
