Iraq requires the US and NATO troops that are on the ground in the country, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani told the Wall Street Journal, saying that: “Elimination of ISIS needs some more time.”
“We think that we need the foreign forces,” Sudani said in his first interview with a US publication, published on Sunday. Sudani took office in October. Since he took office, he has not spoken publicly about his position on the foreign troops, though some of his supporters in Iraq’s government have been lobbying him to expel the foreign military forces.
There are about 2,000 US troops on the ground in Iraq, as well as a multinational NATO training force of several hundred servicemen.
Sudani is extending himself to the Biden administration and to the governments of other Western countries in order to attract investment and aid, and to shake off the concern about his country’s close relationship with Iran, according to the Journal.
He told the newspaper that “I don’t see this as an impossible matter, to see Iraq have a good relationship with Iran and the US.” He said he would like to send a high-level delegation to Washington to meet with Biden administration officials next month, to be followed by and invitation to visit the White House.