Washington has made preparations to withdraw diplomats from Iraq after warning Baghdad that it could shut its embassy, two Iraqi officials and two Western diplomats said, a step that Iraqis fear could turn their country into a battle zone.
Any move by the US to reduce its diplomatic presence in a country where it has up to 5,000 troops would be widely seen in the region as an escalation of its confrontation with Iran, which Washington blames for missile and bomb attacks.
That in turn would open the possibility of military action.
Photo: Reuters
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo threatened to close the embassy in a telephone call a week ago to Iraqi President Barham Salih, two Iraqi government sources said.
The conversation was initially reported by an Iraqi news Web site.
By Sunday, Washington had begun preparations to withdraw diplomatic staff if such a decision is taken, those sources and the two Western diplomats said.
The concern among the Iraqis is that withdrawing diplomats would be followed quickly by military action against forces Washington blamed for attacks.
Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who commands a following of millions of Iraqis, last week pleaded for groups to avoid aggravation that would turn Iraq into a battleground.
One of the Western diplomats said that the US administration did not “want to be limited in their options” to weaken Iran or pro-Iranian militias in Iraq.
Asked whether he expected Washington to respond with economic or military measures, the diplomat replied: “Strikes.”
The US State Department of State, asked about plans to withdraw from Iraq, said: “We never comment on the secretary’s private diplomatic conversations with foreign leaders... Iran-backed groups launching rockets at our embassy are a danger not only to us but to the government of Iraq.”
Earlier this month, the US military said that it would reduce its presence in Iraq to 3,000 troops from 5,200.
The Pentagon on Monday said that it was committed to supporting Iraq’s long-term “security, stability and prosperity.
In a region polarized between allies of Iran and the US, Iraq is the rare exception: a country that has close ties with both.
However, that has left it open to a perennial risk of becoming a battleground in a proxy war.
That risk was hammered home in January, when Washington killed Iran’s most important military commander, Qassem Soleimani, with a drone strike at Baghdad airport.
Iran responded with missiles fired toward US bases in Iraq.
Since then, a new prime minister has taken power in Iraq, supported by the US, while Tehran still maintains close links to powerful Shiite armed movements.
Rockets regularly fly across the Tigris River toward the heavily fortified US diplomatic compound, constructed to be the biggest US embassy in the world in central Baghdad’s so-called Green Zone during the US occupation after a 2003 invasion.
In recent weeks rocket attacks near the embassy have increased and roadside bombs targeted convoys carrying equipment to the US-led military coalition.
On Monday three children and two women were killed when two militia rockets hit a family home, the Iraqi military said.
Police sources said that Baghdad airport was the intended target.
Two Iraqi intelligence sources said that plans to withdraw US diplomats were not yet in motion and would depend on whether Iraqi security forces do a better job of halting attacks.
They said they had received orders to prevent attacks on US sites and had been told that US evacuations would begin only if that effort failed.
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