Secretary of Defense Mark Esper pushed back on claims from the Iraqi prime minister that the United States sent out a signed letter about withdrawing troops from the country.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Esper said that while an unsigned draft letter was mistakenly released, there was not a signed one, as Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi claimed. He said reports to the contrary “may be people trying to create confusion.”
“Our policy has not changed. We are not leaving Iraq, and a draft, unsigned letter does not constitute a policy change,” Esper said. “And there’s no signed letter to the best of my knowledge. I’ve asked the question.”
“We are in Iraq, and we are there to support Iraqi forces and Iraqi government become a strong, independent, and prosperous country,” he added.
Esper said that if the Iraqis want the U.S. to withdraw from the country, the situation would be taken “one step at a time.”
“There’s a few procedural mechanisms, hurdles, if you will, that the Iraqi government would need to go through,” Esper explained. “I think it’s fair to say that many Iraqis recognize the strategic importance of our partnership with them.”
Iraq’s parliament voted to expel American forces after the U.S. drone strike that killed Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani. The resolution was nonbinding, which means it doesn’t carry the force of law.
Esper said many of the Iraqi people still stand in firm opposition to Iran and the Iranian proxy militias that operate in Iraqi.
“We still see Iraqis on the streets protesting their government due to corruption and the malign influence of Iran, so those sentiments, those feelings, have not gone away,” he said. “I think that at the end of the day, working with the Iraqi people, you’ll find that our presence is important for both their country [and] ours.”
Regarding potential impacts on military operations against the Islamic State group, Esper said that he had not received any reports that Soleimani’s death has “had a material impact on the ability to engage ISIS.”
