Baghdad and Washington set the date for the withdrawal of coalition forces from Iraq news

A senior Iraqi official confirmed that Iraq and the United States agreed to withdraw international coalition forces from the country in two stages, the first extending from September of next year to the end of 2026.

Khaled Al-Yaqoubi, advisor to the Iraqi Prime Minister for security affairs, said – in statements to Al Jazeera – that the technical committees of the two countries agreed to withdraw forces from the Ain al-Asad base (west) and the capital, Baghdad, in a first stage.

The security advisor also stressed that signing and announcing the coalition forces withdrawal agreement depends on the political situation the region is going through, referring to the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, in addition to developments in the political scene in the United States.

The Iraqi Prime Minister’s Advisor for Security Affairs indicated that part of the process of postponing the announcement of the coalition forces withdrawal agreement is the escalation that occurred in the region, stressing that announcing the withdrawal date is subject to the estimates of politicians in Iraq and the United States.

Commenting on this agreement, Iraqi Prime Minister Muhammad Shiaa Al-Sudani said, “We have taken an important step to resolve the issue of the international coalition forces remaining in Iraq and ending the work of the United Nations mission.”

Observers believe that announcing the agreement is a political victory for Sudanese, who seeks to achieve balance in Baghdad’s position as an ally of both Washington and Tehran, which are on opposite sides regarding the Middle East.

The United States has about 2,500 soldiers in Iraq, as well as 900 in neighboring Syria, as part of the coalition that was formed in 2014 to fight ISIS after it invaded vast areas in the two countries before being expelled from most of them.