From the halls of parliament to the lightning-fast rumor mills of social media, pro-Iranian factions are demanding US troops withdraw from Iraq in a challenge to the nation’s fragile government.
The political wrangling is another indication of Iraq’s precarious position as it tries to balance ties between two key allies — the US and Iran.
Calls for a US pullout have intensified since US President Donald Trump’s shock decision last month to pull troops from neighboring Syria, while keeping forces in Iraq.
In recent weeks, pro-Iranian parties have organized protests to demand an accelerated US troop withdrawal, while affiliated media outlets published footage of alleged US reinforcements in Iraq’s restive west and north.
The debate is heating up in the Iraqi parliament as well.
Last week, a lawmaker demanded that Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi provide a written explanation for the ongoing US military presence in the nation and a time frame for their stay.
Lawmakers are also drafting a law that would set a deadline for a US withdrawal, said Mahmud al-Rubaie of the Sadiqun bloc, one of the political groups working on the text.
“We categorically reject the presence of foreign troops in Iraq,” al-Rubaie said.
However, rather than a genuine, popularly driven desire for a US withdrawal, the draft is part of the wider race for influence between Washington and Tehran, analysts said.
“This talk is part of the power struggle between the US and Iran,” Iraqi security expert Hashem al-Hashemi said.
Tensions between the two nations have intensified since the US pulled out of the landmark 2015 nuclear accord negotiated with Iran in May last year and observers fear they could destabilize Iraq.
US troop numbers in Iraq peaked at about 170,000 during the battle against al-Qaeda and other insurgents that followed the US-led invasion of 2003.
Trump’s predecessor, former US president Barack Obama, ordered a withdrawal that was completed in 2011, but troops were redeployed in 2014 under a US-led coalition battling the Islamic State group.
In December 2017, Iraq announced it had defeated the Islamic State group.
Since then the number of foreign coalition troops has dropped from nearly 11,000 in January last year to 8,000 by last month.
Coalition spokesman Sean Ryan says there are 5,200 US troops now stationed alongside Iraqi forces in various bases across the nation.
Their presence angers the Hashed al-Shaabi, a paramilitary force that is dominated by pro-Iranian factions which played a key role alongside government forces in the fight against the Islamic State group.
“The US has banned the Hashed from coming near the military bases where its troops are stationed,” al-Hashemi said.
“So the Hashed is now adopting a reciprocal policy” by pushing for a US withdrawal, he said.
Trump’s surprise Christmas visit to troops stationed in western Iraq has added fuel to the fire.
Pro-Iranian parties seized on the fact that he did not meet with Iraqi officials to criticize the visit as insulting and a contravention of Iraq’s sovereignty.
Renad Mansour, a researcher at London-based Chatham House, said that the revived debate over the presence of US troops was likely a swipe at Abdel Mahdi by hardline pro-Iranian factions.
“If Adel Abdel Mahdi fails in removing the US troops, his opponents will of course use it to make him seem weak, just as they used the fact that Trump didn’t meet with him when he came,” Mansour said.
Meanwhile, ordinary Iraqis are more concerned with staggering unemployment, power cuts and a political crisis that has left key ministries unmanned for months. Very few showed up on Friday last week at protests in Baghdad demanding a US pull-out, while hundreds turned out for demonstrations in the south of the nation to protest a lack of public services.
“If Abdel Mahdi is unable to deliver services or jobs or water, or pick a defense or interior minister, then he has way bigger problems,” Mansour said. “If he succeeds in delivering in services, no one will care about US forces.”
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