"Our bond is especially important as we mark the 10th year of the global coalition to defeat Daesh, and I'm proud to have been a part of that fight, " said US Department of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State (ISIS).
Austin met with Iraqi Minister of Defense Thabet Muhammad al-Abbasi on Tuesday to conclude the two-day Joint Security Cooperation Dialogue. The Iraqi delegation was headed by officials from the defense ministry, the Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS), and Kurdistan’s Peshmerga. The US delegation was led by officials from the Central Command, State Department, and other US agencies.
Austin said that ISIS "continues to plot attacks ... from the region and through its global affiliates. So, we must adapt the mission of Inherent Resolve to meet this changing threat.”
The U.S.-Iraq Joint Security Cooperation Dialogue concluded yesterday after discussions on the future of our bilateral security relationship. We look forward to working with our Iraqi partners to advance the agreed upon strategy to transition the coalition mission.
— Ambassador Alina L. Romanowski (@USAmbIraq) July 24, 2024
While Baghdad has maintained that the commission aims to conclude the presence of the coalition forces in the country, Washington has described the step only as a “transition” in the coalition’s role.
Iraqi state media reported on Tuesday that Abbasi was leading his country's delegation in Washington to conduct a round of talks to end the mission of the international coalition in Iraq.
In January, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani presided over the first meeting of the US-Iraq Higher Military Commission (HMC) to discuss the future of the coalition’s mission in Iraq.
“Our convening of this dialogue this week reflects both nations' commitment to strengthen the bilateral security relationship based on the work of the HMC over the past several months,” Major General Pat Ryder, Pentagon spokesman, said on Monday.
In April, Ryder told Rudaw that the United States is seeking to transition from its mission against ISIS into a long-term security relationship with Iraq.
In early July, PM Sudani met with US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Middle East Policy Daniel Shapiro and US Ambassador to Iraq Alina Romanowski in Baghdad to discuss the procedures for ending the mission of the coalition and expanding bilateral relations between the two countries.
Despite the rounds of meetings, the Pentagon said in February that Washington and Baghdad have not set any timelines for US force changes in Iraq.
The Iraqi government had expressed anger over US retaliatory strikes on pro-Iran, Iraqi paramilitary groups. The US strikes were in response to hundreds of rockets and drone strikes that took place last October, targeting US installations and troops in Iraq, Syria, and Jordan.
Hardline Shiite politicians have called for Baghdad to expel US troops from Iraq, even prior to mounting tensions over the US supporting Israel in its war on Gaza.
The US security relationship with Iraq fully transitioned into an advise and assist role in December 2021, triggered by Baghdad's anger over US actions that the Iraqi government deemed a violation of its sovereignty - most notably the assassination of Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani and deputy chief of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF, or Hashd al-Shaabi) Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in Baghdad in early 2020.
Around 2,500 US troops in Iraq and 900 in Syria are leading an international coalition through Operation Inherent Resolve that has assisted Kurdish, Iraqi, and local Syrian forces in the fight against ISIS, which once held swathes of land in Iraq and Syria but was declared territorially defeated in 2019. The group remains a security threat, carrying out attacks on military targets and civilians on both sides of the border.
