Acting US defense chief Patrick Shanahan made a surprise visit to Baghdad on Tuesday, as several Iraqi parliamentary blocs have proposed a draft-law that would set a timetable for a US troop withdrawal from the country.
"We are in Iraq at the invitation of the government and our interests are to build Iraqi security capability," Shanahan told reporters traveling with him on his first trip to Iraq.
"I want to hear first-hand from them about concerns, the political dynamics that they are facing and then based on that we will obviously factor that into our planning,” Reuters quoted him as saying.
Shanahan is the third high-ranking official to come to Baghdad after President Donald Trump’s visit to Al Asad Air Base in western Iraq last December and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s visit in January.
Shanahan’s trip comes after Trump caused anger in Baghdad this month when he said it was important to keep a US military presence in Iraq so that Washington could keep a close eye on Iran.
Several blocs in Iraq's parliament used the uproar to reiterate their demand that the US mission in Iraq be restricted and troop numbers reduced.
In their first reaction to Shanahan’s visit, Iraqi parliament Speaker Mohamed al-Halbousi and the leader of the National Wisdom Movement in Iraq, Ammar al-Hakim, expressed rejection to the presence of foreign ground troops on Iraqi territories.
A statement issued by Hakim’s press office said the two sides stressed it was important for the Iraqi government to clarify its position from the US presence in Iraq.
The statement is a clear indication on the dispute among Iraq’s parliamentary blocs, with some calling for an unconditioned US pullout, while others preferring for American troops to remain in the country over fears of an ISIS comeback.
The US has about 5,200 troops in Iraq as trainers and advisers to Iraqi security forces in their battle against insurgent elements of ISIS that once controlled large swaths of Iraqi territory.
MP Siham al-Moussawi, who is a member of the Fatah Alliance which fully rejects the US presence in Iraq, told Asharq Al-Awsat that Shanahan’s visit to Baghdad “aims at pressuring some blocs and lawmakers not to adopt the draft-law on the withdrawal of foreign forces” from the country.
